Today our president announced he is running for re-election. Maybe Mr Obama needs to be thoughtful about what he needs to do well before election day?

As I explore the news of the past few weeks I find myself more and more unsettled. I have avoided my social critic self because I wanted to focus instead on the idea that everything is as it should be. It is a noble idea worth exploring that there is nothing wrong. However the world as it is now has some things going on that are not working very well.

Today I feel the need to return to asking questioning about what is going on because these questions are needed. I suspect many if not most people who look at what is going on would agree that real change is necessary.

One of the major roadblocks to a better world is our political process. Politics as it is now is not working for the benefit of most people. Three powerful forces encumber politics: the insistence on judging and demonizing those who think differently; the agendas of those who finance the politician’s campaigns; and the predominance of the ego-mind. This system is terribly broken and these three factors are in need of great innovation, lots of compassion, and a much wiser level of consciousness.

Today the US is entangled in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Libya and frankly we don’t belong in any of them. The Corporate world is not paying their fair share of taxes and they are attempting to blame the unions for the financial woes of the world. Fortunately most Americans are smart enough not to be fooled by this greed driven move by corporate interests. The business of government has gone off track and as those with the most financial influence buy the laws they want. The budget of our government has gotten out of control and the two reasons are war and the lack of taxes paid by those that have all the financial resources.

It seems time we talk reality here. This is no longer about who is right or wrong. This is about a clear and honest appraisal of what is working and what is not. Here are some questions to consider:

Is it working for us to be in three wars and spending billions on these wars when we are in a financial mess?

Is it right to say it is the working people like you and I that are the cause of the financial problems of our government?

Will government honestly work better if they take away our benefits, cut our education and other important program that provide for those in need?

Would it work if we insist that all the companies and their executives pay their fair share of taxes?

Would it work that the corporations getting rich off these wars pay taxes on their profits?

Would it be fair for the oil companies who are getting richer off raising all the gas prices (rationalizes these cost because of an unstable Middle East) to pay taxes on their profits?

Would it work if 5% of the people that control about 90% of the wealth in this nation pay their fair share of taxes?

Is it working that banks are making so much money off credit because people are trying to survive and keep their homes? Are banks paying their fair share of taxes?

Is it working if people are going broke and loosing their homes over health care costs? Are insurance and medical companies and their executives paying their fair share of taxes?

There are many more questions to be asked. What solutions come to your mind about how we can fix our broken system?

Here are a few solutions that seem obvious to me:

Close the loopholes in the tax system so that every individual and every corporation pays a fair percentage of taxes.

Eliminate all influence money from politics

Remove the US from the wars we are in

Make healthcare reasonable or free to everyone who can’t afford it

Put much more money into education and far less into building bombs

Hold all corporations accountable for paying their fair share of taxes, that means no offshore corporations etc.

Make everyone pay social security taxes not just those who make less than $100,000 per year

Carefully regulate banks, credit cards companies and mortgages

Stop subsidizing oil companies and started taxing them

CEO and other executives get paid astronomical wages and bonuses so they should be fully taxed on all that money.

Taxes are not evil no matter what those who don’t pay many taxes say. Taxes are necessary and if everyone pays their fair share then our system of government will work better.