If I Could Be Queen of the World...

Don't we all wish we could wave our hand and make it so sometimes? Here is a short list of what I would do if I was suddenly Queen and had MUCH POWER:

Require cat owners to keep cats indoors only - the songbird population would rise, the cat population would shrink, and fewer shelters would be overflowing with cats that ended up put to sleep.

Make same-sex marriage immediately legal, and equal in every way to opposite-sex marriage, just like our love.

Make all schools K-8's (other than high schools), and use the upper grades to help teach the lower grades, make improvements on school grounds, and make change through actions (delivering food to the hungry, building Habitat for Humanity homes, cleaning up rivers, raising money to save rainforest acres), thus showing the students that they were capable, intelligent, respected human beings who could make a difference in the world.

Make the United States a well-behaved member of the United Nations, not a rogue state that feels above the rules.

Stop advertisement for alcohol and cigarettes in all forms. Tax them out of existence, and take away all subsidies to those industries.

Make public transportation green and free, encouraging families to use public transport.

Make preserving "green space" and "wild space" a national priority. You never get it back.

The list could go on and on. More later. Anyone with better ideas? Other ideas?

On the nightstand: Toward Zero by Agatha Christie
On tape: Coroner's Pidgin by Margery Allingham
On the easel: Sonny, Azul the Great Dane
On the computer: A Note from the Back Burner, article re: same-sex marriage
On the desk: the latest rejection letter about my book.
On my mind: getting over a bout of depression, tattoos, publishers, painting, being 42