Looking forward

2010 was a pretty good year, but I've got an even better feeling about 2011. After recapping the good, the bad and the ugly from 2010, I'm going to start 2011 off on a positive note by offering my optimistic outlook for the year.

2011 will begin with a new political landscape that may make it difficult for our government to legislate efficiently, and I do fear that the Tea Party will make every effort to impose their radical, silly views on our country.

Nonetheless, I'm encouraged by the high level of cooperation shown by the Senate during the not-so-lame lame duck session. With bipartisan support, tax cuts were extended, a second stimulus was passed, DADT was repealed and an important arms control treaty was passed. In just over a month, Congress was arguably more productive and more cooperative than they had been for the rest of the year.

This is a good omen, and while I do expect the Tea Party to do their utmost to disrupt this tenuous unity, I also expect that the reality of the world will be more of an incentive to continue enacting policies that will push our country forward. What will some of those policies be?

1. Green Energy. It's not like I've been screaming this since I began blogging last February, but every passing day means America is losing ground in the all-important technology of the future. Each day the planet gets a little dirtier, and each day other countries invest more in alternative energy which the world is already clamoring for. The time for denying climate change and refusing to acknowledge that America is already losing the race for the world's next technology is long past. Congress MUST enact legislation to encourage growth in the field of alternative energy and curb the emission of fossil fuels.

2. The economy. I list green energy ahead of the economy because I truly believe that if America will begin to fully invest in and explore alternative energy then we'll begin to create jobs. I'm a big supporter of T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oil man who understands the importance of alternative energy. Mr. Pickens envisions a belt of wind farms stretching from the states by the lakes all the way down through Texas. Imagine the jobs that we be created building technology and machinery and operating those farms.

In order for the economy to recover, we're going to need to produce things that people need and want, less and less those things have to do with oil and coal. The economy needs fixing and there's a simple way to do it, invest in the future.

3. Which leads me to my next point, investing in the future means educating Americans. If we want jobs in America, we need Americans who are capable of doing things in a world that is increasingly competitive. Cheap labor has established itself overseas, let's make sure the same thing doesn't happen to more expensive, high-tech labor. We're a smart bunch in America, but the rest of the world has realized that educating people means jobs. They're taking the steps to educate people, and according the recent test scores, they're now out-educating America. That's a problem we need to fix. President Obama knows this, but some of the Tea Party nuts are out to put the Dept. of Ed on the fiscal chopping block, because, you know, they want to make America better.

Education in a massive and diverse country like America isn't a simple thing to handle, but Congress should take serious steps to help fix American education by creating serious incentives to encourage education. Some of these steps have already been taken, like the race to the top. Other steps in the process will be taken by NGOs such as Teach For America and The New Teacher Project, but the government needs to encourage and support these groups and take steps to reform public schools by following their lead.

If America can take serious steps towards reinvesting in itself and its infrastructure and open up new fields of technology in green and alternative energy then our country can take serious and real steps towards putting itself back on the path of economic preeminence. Those should be the serious goals for 2011. Now let's see if we can get everyone on board.