Seven Questions for 2010 (and Beyond)

2. Will the steroid magicians who dope athletes buff the dollar? Our financial backbone is weakened and it needs to compete with undisputed force against the yen, the euro and the sterling. A Gallup poll this week reported that former Soviet nations don't think our dollar is a safe bet. My worry is, do we?

3. When will our celebrity hunger be satisfied? Our addiction to starlight makes us indentured servants to the plantations of white teeth, low decolletages, and flat abs. We consume celebrity gossip and reality TV like Hershey bars and diet Coke, but didn't our mamas warn us that everything should be done in moderation?

4. Will Americans be outraged enough to upgrade our infrastructure? How many bridges have to fall? How many decadently high utility bills do we have to pay? How many arcane, fee-gouging, bill-paying systems do we have to endure before we demand that our institutions improve their technology? Why can't we figure out a green and profitable and efficient national train system? Will we be content with being hijacked by airlines on crowded planes with a bag of peanuts every holiday season? Will we keep accommodating long commutes by car and fluctuating gas prices? Could an efficient rail system throughout the country help breathe vigor into rural areas where there is available land and old manufacturing plants that could be recycled?

5. Will healthy eating become a staple only for the rich? With an obesity epidemic and a troubled health care system, good food is a prescription for great prevention. In the decade to come, will widespread community gardening become the norm in every U.S. city? Will we boldly overhaul our food-delivery system? Will we rethink our eating habits and heed journalist and best-selling author Michael Pollan's advice to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."?

6. Will we reclaim our entrepreneurial spirit? It is an outrage for the official unemployment rate in Detroit to be at 27 percent, while the Detroit News reports that city leaders say the jobless rate soars nearer to 50 percent. Will all cities be revived or will others be left to languish as the nation stumbles toward recovery? Will enough capital be freed to help small businesses who can hire workers? Will the garage geniuses receive financial backing to launch their breakthrough ideas and create new industries? Will the ashes of a fried U.S. economy birth a deluge of innovation or a resurgence of greed?

7. Will we witness the fall of the Capitol Hill Playground? The governing style of far too many Democrats, Republicans and independents mimics elementary school kids tussling during recess. He-said, she-said, and he-did, she-did squabbles in school usually gets every kid involved in trouble. Will someone finally send Congress to the Principal's Office?