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Now that Joe Biden has been sworn in as president of the United States, I hope that he can achieve some of the goals he has put forward. I wish him the best of luck in those, but there are some others that I am curious or concerned about. His economic stimulus must have made many citizens happy with about $2 trillion poured into the economy. That addition to the national debt may not be felt for many years, maybe by your children, grandchildren or great grandchildren. I would really like to see an independent commission organized to deal with the problem of immigration. There must be a “happy medium” between letting nobody enter the country and allowing everybody to enter the country. I am unsure if President Biden is pursuing his announced plan to forgive the debt of college students who took on loans. For the many past collegians who worked one or two or three jobs in order to pay tuition and other college expenses, I wonder how they would view a “free ride” and no required payback to the government for all those who took out loans and now may not have to pay back any of those funds. Maybe there could be a middle-of-the-road solution to that problem as well. Most in the nation view as unfounded the claims of a stolen election by ex-President Trump. There does, however, seem to be a need to institute a plan to see that all states are following the same procedures in national elections. Maybe there should be a standard means established for the identification of voters. Both major parties should be allowed to view the counting of ballots — within view — not from 30 feet away. I have no idea how to allow verification of voter signatures since that seems to be a rather subjective situation. Candidates for national and state offices are viewable on TV and their messages revealed in newspapers and on social media. That gives voters a means of judging who they wish to vote for. I wonder, however, how voters can reach informed decisions on county and local officials, who they probably do not know or have a means of evaluating as good candidates for office. I am fortunate that in the fall elections I knew nearly all of the candidates for the two local school board elections and City Council. Most of the public is not that fortunate, and I really wonder on what basis they reach their decision on who to vote for. There is no D nor R behind the candidates for these elections. Up to the fall elections and before the pandemic set in, the citizenry could attend school board and council meetings to evaluate incumbents and maybe see “future” candidates speaking up on issues. For 40 years I was in the teaching profession and during that time received tons of information from the teachers’ union touting certain candidates and issues. I more often than not voted opposite to what the union suggested. Much of the public, I believe, goes along with suggestions of their unions, family members, friends and leaders of organizations or organizers for candidates. What they are told, they believe, no matter what. I have voted absentee for many years recently, but I can see there could be not fraud but the possibility of influence on voters. Backers of certain candidates or issues could easily volunteer their help — by asking a voter to sign the ballot and then offer to take it and turn in the ballot for them — after the “backer” has filled out the ballot in favor of candidates and/or issues the “backer” supports. In past and future elections there likely is little, if any, fraud, but there has been and could continue to be “laziness” on the part of voters — not studying the issues on sample ballots or not investigating issues or candidates to learn the most correct way to vote. We all owe it to the “right to vote” to actually study the candidates (and issues) in future elections to determine those most fit for election. In the future we all should be attending some meetings at the local levels.