The fix
Present
I read the paper on Thursdays.
Past
I red the paper on Thursdays.
Precedent
English already has a well-established pattern for solving this. Nobody writes "Yesterday I lead the team". We write led.
| Present | Past | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| lead | led | have led |
| feed | fed | have fed |
| bleed | bled | have bled |
| read | red | have red |
But "red" is a color!
It is, and that's also true in speech. This overlap has always been there and causes no problems. We don't mistake "have red the book" for the color when speaking, because verbs and adjectives have different places and roles.
This change will add no new cases of ambiguity that don't already exist in speech.
- I read your email. I red your email.
- Have you read it? Have you red it?
- We read to the kids at night. We red to the kids at night.
How to join
Just start writing it. For better or for worse, English is the people's language. It has no governing body. Once enough of us have red this, we'll be right.