Meeting with Senator Lamar Alexander

Stan Olmstead

                                                                     P.O. Box 403                                                            

Jonesborough TN 37659

stanolmstead@gmail.com

February 15, 2019

Senator Lamar Alexander:

1. Stop Partisan Districting and Voter Suppression: The practice of establishing political advantage for the party in power to determine voting districts, known as gerrymandering, should be stopped. Whether the dilution of the voting power, concentrating the opposing party's voting power or the homogenization for the benefit of the majority to guarantee the minority never attains a majority in any district is an obvious problem and is not responsible leadership or ethical politics. All activities of this type initiated by political parties should be stopped and a non-patrician group of citizens formed to determine voting districts to best represent the public and the citizens.

Allow a more accessible voter privilege and less interference to prevent voting. The events recently witnessed in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina are not new. Let’s stop it and I ask you to propose and promote a process to prevent gerrymandering and the activity of voter suppression to allow a just and fair voting process?

2. Health Care: Do away with corporate health insurance and stop handing over large sums of money to a “corporate” third party for their profits while at the same time excluding many citizens from necessary health services. Promote a single all citizens provider to be covered by a “Medicare like” program for all citizens, with responsibility to social and economic justice with an oversight of corporate health providers whether doctor, hospital or technical and therapeutic that have oversight responsibility to review and prevent “high profiteering”.

Medicare works well for seniors it should be expanded for every citizen? Done well many social and economic issues would be improved or eliminated. Issues of mental health, dental health, vision health and “pre-existing conditions” should be covered. 

3. Environment:

Population: The number one issue of the Environment is human numbers and it should be acknowledged. Our consumption and degradation of resources, lost species and loss of naturalness is a grave concern. Educate, influence and remove tax deduction for children to parents with healthy children. Having children is a choice; if there is to be tax benefit give it for education not “procreation”. Encourage religious groups and the populace of the “cause and effect” of unmanaged growth and our constant impact to the natural world and to us as occupants of this natural world. Corporations constantly ask for growth because that is where profit is made but unmanaged growth is unsustainable.

 Climate change: Return to the Paris Climate Agreement. Promote taxation of fossil fuels, discourage low efficiency vehicles, leave fossil fuels in the ground and promote the understanding of the ever expanding human population and their cause and effect. Promote solar energy and increased public transportation.

Energy: Increase taxation of fossil fuels and their carbon emission, increase the taxation of diesel fuel and gasoline and put the proceeds into not only roads but public transport, education, climate change and air quality projects, encourage public transportation by improving rail passenger transport, discourage large square foot homes through education. Promote Solar-power over all other forms of electricity. Promote citizen use of solar over corporate and promote private solar electricity development allowing it to enter the grid with only the transportation lines being corporate.

Public lands: More public lands not less. Stop the trend in congress of selling or transferring federal land to States. The common land for the public is essential for a healthy life with open space to explore, habitat for fauna and a refugia for all and conservation area to absorb our disturbance. Promote the possibility of acquiring federal public lands in central and western Tennessee.

Water: Enforce the Clean Water Act to the fullest and demand that point source and non-point source pollution be the responsibility of the polluter. Tennessee and national waters need improvement and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act should be strengthened not relaxed and the purpose of the EPA should be encouraged not deregulated.                                             

4. Understanding political and popular ethics in the era of Trump?

Ethics, Education, Environment and economics

Aldo Leopold: Requirements of Conservation - Do not through away the parts, Handle it gently, It transforms economics, Don't let to many people to tinker with it.