American Idol

PART I

Dear Randy, Cara, Simon, and Ellen,

One reason the show is getting so squirmy, uncomfortable, and stale is you've got these kids singing old top-40 tunes recorded before they were born. These songs were mildewed and worn out long before Fox got permission to use them.

Here's an idea: Theme your nights on something fun and interesting. Baliwood. Celtic pop. Reggae. acapella harmonies. Rap. Grunge.

Anything but the yawners they've been singing.

PART II

Dear Idol Contestants:

Simon calls it the "moment" or the "it factor" -- it's really not a mystery to get that star quality mojo happening when you are performing. The secret is to GET OVER YOURSELF. You are performing because people want to be entertained, they want to be taken away from mundane life. They want to feel something, to experience the song. It's not about YOU. It's about the music, and unless you can be like Crystal or Casey (they both seem to understand it's about the music and the art, not their own egos/attention), you'll never have it.

Good luck!

Health Care

Dear Republican office holders,
Before digging your heels in, screeching about how single payer health care would take your freedom away, let me remind you: No One is talking about making your private health care illegal or anything. You really need to talk with people who have lived for extended periods of time with no health insurance (FYI -- I have been there myself).

• You need to hear what it's like to wake up in the night with a fever and pray that it's nothing serious.
• You need to hear what it's like to fall and sprain your ankle, wrap it up and hope that nothing's broken.
• You need to hear what it's like to have an asthma attack and hope that pharmacist on the corner will (once again) sell you a rescue inhaler, even though you have no prescription.

Other countries have managed to care for their most important resource -- the people. Why is America lagging and failing in the health care arena? Do you really want to go down in history as the legislators who couldn't drop the backward bottom-line mentality and care about working class Americans? You really need to wake up, smell some serious coffee, and drag yourselves into the 21st Century.