This week’s announcement that Britain voted to leave the European Union seemed to shock people. People wrongly take is as a done deal. It’s not. Much is possible.

What makes Britain Britain? What makes England different from Scotland? What makes the EU a bunch of separate countries, or one union? Simply what people say.

All these things are based on agreement. And now, a slim majority say that Britain should exit the EU. It’s supposed to take 2 years. Two years is a long time. It need not happen. There are alternatives.

There many seem to be no other alternatives. Britain is either in, or out. But there are tons of options. Anything that can be described in language.

Note also that Brits voted for exit by a slim margin of 52% to 48%. 72% of Brits voted, so if they take a new vote, there are plenty more people who can sway it either way. And the vote isn’t binding- Parliament must ratify it, but can overturn it.

The main objection Brits seem to have to being part of the EU is the immigration. As poorer nations join the EU, many people have migrated. Maybe some new rules could satisfy them. If everything stays the same except they curtail immigration, maybe they’d stay. The EU can negotiate anything they want.

For a good article about the pros and cons, see this one by the BBC. In summary, it says:

They said Britain was being held back by the EU, which they said imposed too many rules on business and charged billions of pounds a year in membership fees for little in return. They also wanted Britain to take back full control of its borders and reduce the number of people coming here to live and/or work.

One of the main principles of EU membership is “free movement”, which means you don’t need to get a visa to go and live in another EU country. The Leave campaign also objected to the idea of “ever closer union” and what they see as moves towards the creation of a “United States of Europe”.

For another view, see this article in The Week.

One of the dangers of Britain leaving, and then trying to negotiate free trade deals is that EU countries would want to punish Britain to discourage other countries from leaving. That’s certainly possible, but it’s childish. There’s also an opportunity to reform the EU with its many rules that countries complain about, or make a unique deal with Britain to reform immigration. They could even make a temporary separation agreement to see how things go. Anything is possible when people converse like adults.

The real question is, can they talk about their desires constructively? And, whose desires? The various government representatives, or the people?

Two recent Facebook posts about the recent terrorist attacks in Orlando and Tel Aviv:

Some people blame the US and President Bush. Bush thought he was “the decider” and didn’t need to govern responsibly and with judgement. He thought he could delegate responsibility. Many see the rise of ISIS as caused by his power-intoxicated Republican cohorts when they decided they could not only topple Saddam Hussein, but take over all of Iraq.

Make violence seem inappropriate

The answer is simple. Make violence seem inappropriate.

To simpletons, this means striking back. But to the terrorists, fighting back just makes violence look more appropriate. It confirms their view, hardens their resolve and can even make them more desperate.

Be adult. Clean up the mess.

The real answer is harder. It starts with cleaning up the mess created by our trillions of dollars of war. But it doesn’t stop there.

What we did was ignite a powder keg. Poverty, suffering and suppression created the explosive situation, and those still exist. It exists in European Moslem communities as well as in the Middle East. Plus elsewhere. Cleaning up much of that is needed, too.

Part of the answer may continue to be military participation and withstanding years of violence. I don’t know. But the key is ending poverty and suffering. At the same time, we better end global warming, or the suffering will increase.

We can do all these things. We know what it takes. Investment and putting people to work, working together and communication. Ending poverty takes education, especially educating women. But this has a side-effect- it lowers population growth, and then lowers the population.

So we’d have to reign in our greedy corporations that insist that growth is the only solution. We’ll need to consciously work together to create a new culture, a new world.

Luckily, a way to do that is almost at hand. Join us, at PeopleCount.org. Add your name to our mailing list. Even better: donate as well.

In a forum on e-democracy.com, one American complained that Obama’s decision to put a few advisory troops into Syria is the beginning of another American war in the middle east. While that’s ludicrous, the next president might not be as cautious as Obama.

But my criticism of the post is that it’s just complaining, which does nothing.The problem is, what are we going to do about it?

At the time Bush called for Congress to allocate money for a war, I remember thinking: “This is either brilliant or idiotic. If Congress allocates the money for war in Iraq, Saddam was sure to buckle and let in all sorts of inspectors.” And sure enough, it began to work- it was brilliant!

And then, Bush, “the idiot decider”, decided he was through sending in inspectors, and it quickly turned to idiocy.

We quickly captured Saddam, it was great. We had the chance to remove him and choose someone from his government who’d be a better leader. We could even work with him (or even her!) to start making the country more moderate. If we planned a 50-year process, it could work.

And then the idiot decider stood by while his people dismissed the police and the army, and chaos ensued. Idiocy has won again. Hope was gone.

And there was nothing we could do. We, the American People, had no say in the matter because we had let our own government go rogue a long time ago. Had we had a say in the matter, none of it would have happened. We’ve allowed ourselves to be able to elect idiot governments and have no ability to control them.

The same thing is happening now. I don’t know if Trump truly believes the stuff he spouts. I hope he’s just brilliantly manipulating the Republicans. But I don’t know… Dishonesty is rarely a better policy than idiocy. I like the tone we’re hearing from the Democrats, but we need to see more international results from Obama.

We have a difficult road ahead in Syria. Aiding the moderates to overthrow Saddat is clearly the right side to be on, unless it’s not going to be successful. I don’t see any way for it to succeed. I doubt Obama does either. I suspect we’re trying to do the decent thing instead of coming up with a real solution. I suspect Obama and Kerry are pursuing a real solution quietly.

Clearly the best solution is if Russia would help us put a stable democracy into Syria. Or a stable dictatorship with a plan to turn it into a democracy over time, slowly. It must be some form of Syria’s current government, plus an end to the support of Hamas and The Muslim Brotherhood.

I doubt Obama will create the kind of true leadership we need for this. He seems to think leadership is only done via backroom negotiations until an agreement can be announced. So he has a limited practical plan for supporting the moderates while keeping his negotiations with Russia close to his chest. My guess is that we need to mobilize all of Europe and even China to pressure Russia and Iran to work with us. Putin is saying the right things about Syria, but he’s not to be trusted. Syria needs a real UN-backed solution.

Let’s make Congress have true political accountability to the people, so we can do more than sit back in silence next time war is imminent. We need to do more than hope the next election won’t bring back a repetition of the Bush years. Support PeopleCount.org.