Star light, star bright, first star we see tonight, we wish we may, we wish we might, get the New Year's resolutions we think are right—for a lot of other people who clearly need a few suggestions.
So, without further fuss:
President George W. Bush: To really become as engaged in waging war on global warming as in waging war in Iraq.
Idaho's U.S. Rep. Bill Sali: To read more than the U.S. history he thinks he remembers from high school.
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig: To give his state a gift that will keep on giving: resign.
Idaho Legislature: Same as last year (isn't this getting tedious, legislators?): To unshackle residents of cities and counties to let them rule themselves by allowing creation and collection of local taxes for local needs, mass transit as just one example, that would have to be approved by voters before going into effect.
Anti-wolf nuts: To howl a little less and nap a little more.
Idaho Legislature: To return to fairness in taxation by abandoning the sales tax on groceries, increasing the income tax proportionately, taxing on-line retailers such as brick-and-mortar retailers, and requiring disclosure of the sales prices in real estate transactions.
U.S. Forest Service: To keep fighting for funding for the likes of the Type I fire-fighting teams that saved Ketchum and the Wood River Valley from destruction by the Castle Rock Fire.
U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Blaine County emergency services teams: To never, ever, ever again leave the Wood River Valley in a virtual information blackout as an emergency begins to unfold.
Idaho Legislature: To end its cat-and-mouse game with the Idaho Supreme Court and meet the state's obligation to repair Idaho's dilapidated schools.
U.S. military and intelligence services: (same as last four years) To find Osama bin Laden.
Fellow Americans: To learn the meaning of habeus corpus and the bloody history of our constitutional right to it.
Elkhorn homeowners who sued the Community School: To clean up the dead elk that may result from trying to force the school to abandon its elk-feeding program and to drop any pretense of shock and dismay at the school's sudden action.
Opponents of new local hotels: To come up with something more interesting than the hackneyed and threadbare objections that new hotels will be a) too big, b) create traffic or c) block views. Yawn.
U.S. Congress: To clean up the immigration mess with a program that gets the country the legal workers it needs and to quit making criminals of well-intentioned workers and employers.
Ketchum residents: Learn to say "yes" more often to positive changes like redesigning Fourth Street and the YMCA that have helped return life to the city.
Ketchum City Council: To walk around at night and discover that the city is still missing both sidewalks and lighting, making getting around on foot treacherous.
Federal Aviation Administration: To make sure that if it builds a new airport to serve the Wood River Valley that airlines and visitors will come.
Backcountry users: To separate wilderness and wireless—and to enjoy the difference.
Wood River Valley leaders: To remember that local data showed that as Ketchum's economic wheel turned over three years, it had lost 20 businesses—about 20 percent of the total—even before the Castle Rock Fire.
Wood River Fire & Rescue leaders and the city of Hailey: To stop the turf wars, consolidate departments and provide the public with more efficient fire protection.
Valley cities: To abide by recent court decisions and make all e-mail communications with public officials easily accessible to the public by making them available on-line.
Bellevue: To beware of 100-foot cell towers bearing gifts.
Wood River Valley residents: To keep living and giving and growing the valley's reputation as a kind and generous community.
California: To keep fighting the good fight on clean air and combating global warming.
Major U.S. broadcast news media: To redefine what is news and spare viewers the ongoing anti-social high jinks of Hollywood's celebrity tramps and vamps—Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton et al.
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter: To get Idaho off the sidelines and into the fight for stiffer rules on vehicle emissions and fuel standards.
Community housing opponents: To remember that robots don't fight fires, run snowplows, arrest criminals, educate the kids or pick up the week's garbage.
