Message In A Plastic Bottle

Breaking News on This World Ocean Day: A message for a president, a public defender and a Quaker.

If I was president, I'd think of how the unemployment rate could be lowered without reducing, if not eliminating, jobs in education and social services; though I understand that they're easy pickings. I'd see less government subsidizing of public programs as a ploy to force more of the population to seek work at home. Along with resistance to birth control provisions, changing the equation from 'in the way of reduced corporate-family payrolls' to "in a family way."

If I was a public defender, I'd note that the Boys' Club goes on trial, goes on fighting, and goes on investor gambling. That's right - it goes on while public assistance is cut off to mother and child. I'd argue that women have the right to withhold benefits when the government is withholding taxes. I'd point out that cooking, cleaning and washing are executive functions in the home and require executive compensation.

If I were a fair-minded and good-hearted person, I'd understand that you don't cut off your nose to spite your face. I'd realize, as well, that it's wrong to put a pretty face on the dirty business of politics. The battle of the sexes is not won when we make love, not war. It's won when we make good on our patriotic duty to secure the common good. Only with common sense, standing on common ground, and pursuing a common cause can we see ourselves clear of the sins of the father being visited upon the children.

Duly found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (no relation) on Midway Atoll this day of commemoration.