John Sheda

In the doldrums of the middle of winter, my simple mind begins to wander all over the place. I think if the “I wonder what would happen if……,” took place. And once again, (it’s happened before), what would happen if yours truly became “Dictator of the World,” for a couple of years or so. Oh boy, I sure would make a lot of changes for sure. I know for certain you’d love each and every one of them. But I’ll narrow them down to just these three…..for now:

National Politics Section: You’ve all heard about the “Term Limits” phrase that keeps cropping up every now and then but will NEVER EVER get passed, for obvious reasons of course. As Dictator, I will establish something called a “One Term Only” law. No more running for re-elections. One time and one time only. Get in and then get out. Not sure how this would work out but a starting point would be something like President, (8 years); Senator, (6 years) and Representatives (4 years). My “underlings” could handle these minor adjustments. Not sure about the Supreme Court Justices. Maybe 12 years or perhaps continue on as is. We sure would save on those campaign dollars.

National News: No more 24 hour news cycles. Not sure what the appropriate number hours would be but the 24 hour news is just depressingand would come to an end. Is our world really as bad as it’s reported or is the old adage, “bad news sells” true? We need more objective & critical thinking instead of what is opined to us continually on tv. The bad news day in and day out kind of gets depressing doesn’t it? I’m sure that Tama, Toledo and the other towns in our county is not any different any other communities and I’m constantly inundated with all the positive things happening right here and all around us. There are plenty of “congratulations” and positivity to go around to everyone.

Baseball & Sports Section: I save the most important changes for the last. And there’s a lot of changes this dictator would make. First of all, those “zillion” dollar contacts would come to an end. What ever a ball player signs for, half of it will have to go to a charity of the dictator’s choice such as local food pantries, homeless shelters, helping the abused, local municipality departments and so on and so forth. We would set up a large committee around the country to help people out in a most real way. After this, I would put an end to crying, whining and blaming the referees and umpires for YOUR inability to win the game. No more instant replays, except when the specific play was a great one that everyone would enjoy over and over again. The end would also come to the designated hitter and baseball would be played like it’s supposed to be played! Nine players in the field and the same nine players batting! Harumph! Also, no “invisible box” that shows if the ball is a strike or not. Not fair to the umpire. I would love to see baseball back to the way it used to be, wouldn’t you?

Well that’s it for now. So what do you think of these three and more importantly, if YOU were DOTW, what changes would you make? Please do not say to demand my column to cease and desist immediately. But you’ll figure it out. Let me know at jsheda@indytel.com or call me at 319.327.4640. FYI, this is all in fun, right?