Rick Steves for president!

This morning, someone forwarded me a link to Rick Steves’ “Cold in Kyoto and other hot topics” article and, after reading it, I can’t help but feel like the current batch of presidential candidates are missing the boat. 

As some of you know, Steves is a well known travel author and tour guide.  He’s spent his life travelling around the world and in his Kyoto article, points out some of the simple and effective approaches that other countries have used to solve the same problems that plague us here in America.

Should we throw drug offenders in prison?  No, lets take some advice from the Swiss and view drug addiction as a health issue so we can offer constructive solutions to the addicted instead of incarcerate them.

Should we build larger freeways to combat traffic congestion?  No, lets take some advice from the folks in London that have instituted a hefty ‘congestion fee’ tax to drive your car into the city if you don’t live or work downtown.  All the proceeds go to pay for public transit.

Steves’ article doesn’t dive into excruciating detail, but it does offer enough of a glimpse to open one’s eyes to solving conventional problems in non-conventional ways.  I’d like to hear more of this forward thinking coming out of our goverment, but I’d be happy if we were open minded enough to take some advice from our friends around the world.