NORTHAMPTON—Vincent “Vinny” Valetutti has published “If I Were President: 29 alternative ideas for solving global problems” in the days before the presidential election to get Americans thinking about solutions—rather than controversy.

Valetutti is not a candidate for any office. His book is intended not as a platform for a campaign but instead to raise awareness and offer frustrated voters some food for thought.

“Thanks to Greta Thunberg, the young Swiss environmental activist, I was motivated to get my ideas down on paper, in this book,” Valetutti writes in the book’s introduction. “I set my ideas down, and now I hope to motivate you.”

The 29 ideas in “If I Were President” are presented in these eight categories: Invitation to All World Leaders, Military, Constitutional Amendments, Capitalism, Social Issues, Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection, Health Care, and Patents. 

Valetutti is a retired engineer. What is unique about his book, and his ideas, is that they do not fall on party lines. He is not a Democrat, Republican, or Independent; his ideas are fresh and varied in terms of perspective.

As he is quoted as saying in the foreword—written by Janice Beetle of Janice Beetle Books, who helped Valetutti develop the manuscript— “I consider myself a realist.”

“If I Were President” is now available at www.levellerspress.com/product/if-i-were-president-29-alternative-ideas-for-solving-global-problems/. An ebook is also available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M6382NW/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=if+i+were+president&qid=1603978614&sr=8-7.

Before working on his book, Valetutti’s first public show of activism came in the spring when he designed and constructed a Sea Level Rise Ruler to raise awareness about the problem of rising sea levels in the world.

The traveling flagpole assembly holds a 30-foot high banner that replicates a ruler, with exact measurements in feet. Valetutti towed the ruler to Northampton and had it on view this summer, and in September, he towed it to Washington, D.C., for viewing. 

“When people stand next to the flagpole and see how high that really is, it shows how legitimate and scary the reality of rising sea levels is,” he said. “If sea levels rise this much, we will face an economic disaster that will be very significant, drastically changing the world as we know it.”

Valetutti hopes to reach concerned citizens across the country. To learn more about his Sea Level Rise Ruler, visit www.sealevelriseruler.com

Valetutti can be reached at vinny@sealevelriseruler.com.

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Vincent “Vinny” Valetutti is my friend Becka’s partner. I met him several years ago when he offered to drive our entire book group to a vineyard in a van so we could all relax and enjoy. Meeting all of us for the first time, Vinny was friendly and pleasant, and also a good driver!

This spring, I assigned a student intern working with me in my PR business to interview Vinny and write a press release on the traveling, thirty-foot-high, mock Sea Level Rise Ruler he created to raise awareness about rising sea levels. When standing next to the ruler, one has a close-up, dramatic view of how high the sea would rise if only five to ten percent of Antarctica and Greenland were to melt. 

Vinny towed his ruler on a trailer and parked it in a lot in downtown Northampton, Massachusetts, so people could visit it and learn more about one impending circumstance of climate change. Earlier this month, he towed his giant ruler to Washington, DC.

Helping get some media attention on this innovation gave me a deeper view into the mind that is Vinny’s. So, when he contacted me a few months after his initial outreach and asked for help with a book, I was interested in working with him. I have since learned much about the man behind the ruler.

Vinny grew up north of New York City and began to be fascinated by how things work at a young age. A retired engineer, Vinny has a great deal of experience in energy conservation and with heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in office buildings. 

Vinny’s career and his travels inform and inspire ideas of all kinds. As he imagines, he meshes his deep passion for the environment with his knowledge of history and politics, his global savvy, and his lifelong experience as a pragmatic, creative problem-solver. 

His book, due out this fall with a working title of If I Were President: 29 Unique Ideas for Solving Global Problems. As the name suggests, Vinny offers 29 ideas in his book, presented in these eight categories: Invitation to All World Leaders, Military, Constitutional Amendments, Capitalism, Social Issues, Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection, Taxation, and Patents. 

Many of the ideas are interconnected. Some have the basic premise of supply and demand at their core, and others were inspired by Vinny’s take on the bible from his childhood learnings. 

Vinny says he sees the world differently. His lens doesn’t focus solely to the left, or the right, and it also doesn’t land in the center. “Think of my mind like a sphere,” he explains. “You have a diameter, and you have the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere. I’m anywhere in the volume of the sphere. Sometimes, I also think outside the sphere—kind of like thinking outside the box. I’m a warehouse of boxes, and sometimes, I think outside the warehouse.”

Vinny offers the disclaimer in his book that his proposals are not intended as fully formed concepts, and they are not intended as facets of a presidential platform. They are simply food for thought for all of us.

I offer the disclaimer that the Janice Beetle Books indicia on the book jacket does not signify an endorsement of the specific ideas within but rather wholehearted support of the author’s creativity and innovative thinking.

I hope you’ll check out this title when it’s released. It’s interesting reading in difficult times.

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