Steve Conte: If I Ruled The World

All rockers would be able to appreciate jazz. If I can appreciate all types of music, including punk rock, garage rock, metal and jazz, others can too! But I’ve actually heard rockers say, “Jazz just sounds like a bunch of wrong notes!”

No, fool: it’s actually another language. If you only speak English and you hear someone speaking Norwegian it’s going to sound like gibberish to you. People need to open their minds to other languages, cultures—and music. It makes the world a richer, more vibrant and colourful place—perhaps a more interesting place than if we only had a three-chord garage band playing life’s soundtrack (although that can be beautiful too).

We would save the arts in schools! We’ve got to stop cutting our arts programmes for kids in schools. Everyone in society benefits from having kids being creative and thinking outside of the box.

From music to visual art to writing, these programmes help children develop hand-eye coordination, creativity, concentration, self-expression and risk-taking. So stop the book banning and imposing one set of religious beliefs on kids and get them thinking for themselves.

Mass transit would be more comfortable. If only it was something to look forward to, we wouldn’t have so many polluting cars on the road (mine included).

Airlines, for instance, need to get back to making flying a pleasant experience, not one of dread, hassles and extra charges.  Not only are they charging extra for marginally different seats, they charge you just to change to another seat of the same kind. They even charge you for coffee now!

I get it, the costs of fuel and other things have gone up—but as with most corporations, the big bosses in their corner offices with their huge salaries aren’t willing to take a little financial hit. They’re just gonna pass the misery down to their paying customers. This would change in my world!

We would tax the rich accordingly so that we can have more programmes and funds to feed and house the poor! Of course it’s not my place to say how much money is enough for people to have, but when they see that so many of our problems stem from the disparity between socio-economic groups, doesn’t it make them feel a little something? Nah…I guess not. But the politicians can do something about it, if they can stop appeasing the lobbyists.

Politics would be fact based. Not alternate facts, actual facts. Not half-truths, but truths. Not theories and unsubstantiated claims. And I mean from both sides! The old joke—“How do you know if a politician is lying? Their mouth is moving”—is right on, but there should be laws against it.

I don’t know what kind of agency would have to be put in place to do all that fact-checking, but it needs to be done in a nonpartisan way—if that’s even possible. Lies add to the hate that is already out there, especially in the US. We’ve got to get to a place of unity, as, right now, it looks like “Divided We Stand” with everyone sticking to their own “side” no matter what. 

I would keep our city streets clean! We need to have crews looking out for people who drop garbage on the streets and dog walkers who leave their dog’s poop on the sidewalks and in the grass in public parks.

There’s a special place in hell for those who think it’s beneath them or too much of a hassle to throw their trash in a garbage can or pickup after their dog. In the meantime I hope people’s dog poop karma comes back on them and they track in a mess into their homes and onto their carpets. 

Insurance companies shouldn’t be able to raise your rates just because they’ve paid out to you once. For example, last year somebody hit my car while it was parked and after I reported it, my insurance company raised my rates! This is, of course, after I have been paying them for years with no incidents.

Paying for insurance is kind of like gambling—but the insurance companies are the dealers, thinking, There's no way we are going be the losers. If I ruled the world, this would change!