1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

Since people of reason with morals would stop the nonsense going on in the US after a sternly worded letter, consider this your sternly worded letter. We elect you to represent us. We elect you to uphold the law of this land and navigate international law humanely. We elect you to be a check on Executive overreach and Supreme Court shenanigans. I haven’t seen you do enough of this in the last decade to justify your role in government. Based on your records, I don’t believe you think that what you do matters. It could. And now, during the largest constitutional crisis of my GenX lifetime, is a great time to matter. Strength isn’t beating someone until they give in. That reveals rank cowardice. Lying because you can is something you should grow out of after toddlerhood. The ignorance and disrespect for truth from this administration is, aside from being evil and illegal, BREATHTAKINGLY EMBARRASSING. Strength comes from cooperating to make things no individual can create alone. It comes from learning from other people; from communication and respect for life, human life and the ecosystem we depend on to survive. We need NASA’s library. We need Smithsonian exhibits on the evils of slavery, which made a select few people rich while impoverishing the economy and society as a whole. Be a rising tide lifting all boats not a superyacht in a shrinking pond. Here are some starting points: Rejoin the international community with soft power like USAID. Appoint skilled diplomats and not failsons and inconvenient wives to be ambassadors. Rescind sanctions on Cuba and Haiti. Actually govern Puerto Rico like it matters. Disband ICE and jail every last ICE agent for the rest of their days for ethnic cleansing. Let out everyone imprisoned for drug charges and/or resisting arrest and there will be room aplenty. Shut down for-profit prisons. Those are forced labor camps and a moral injury to us all. Stop funding Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. If it sets a precedent of land back for Native Americans, so be it. Help Ukraine push Russia back into its 2010 borders. Set up conditions that make genocide less appealing for the powerful. Stand for Human rights here and everywhere. Stop whatever oil grab is happening in Venezuela. That whole situation is so cartoonishly evil that it’s hard to process. Same with soft launching an invasion of Greenland when we have all the access there we need. Just Don’t! Go all in on support for non-oil based energy. We have the ability for renewables and safer nuclear. Put in the work and we will not be at risk from oil dependence. Stop relying on the petrodollar to keep the economy afloat. Invest in Americans - people have great ideas! But you MUST STOP private equity and monopolies/oligarchies. I graduated from MIT. I know multiple people who were excited that Microsoft bought the patent of their thesis work only to watch them bury it to quash competition rather than use it to improve their products. That’s how monopolies are a net loss to everyone. Tax the top companies and wealthiest people aggressively. Take the ongoing pandemic seriously. Biden had a good plan on his campaign website that was archived before his administration ignored and erased it. Look it up & do that. Fund antiviral research like it’s going to save your life, because it will. Covid is killing people faster than ever in my lifetime. Flu is taking hold. It’s all preventable and we know how. We need your will. While we’re at it, nationalize healthcare. And energy. Invest in real transit. Even if it’s trains we can drive our cars onto so we can get around at a destination. These are problems we know how to solve. Protect national reserves, natural resources, and residents. Give OSHA, the EPA, & The CPFB funding and enforcement. Stop assisting the Trump administration in their desire to burn the country to the ground. I struggle to understand why all of you seem to want to diminish yourselves only to rule a pile of ashes. Have some self respect even if you have none for me. FIX THIS. Impeach, sanction, pass new laws, whatever. FIX the US.