Who is really your representative?
Now I'm going to point the finger back in the other direction away from highly paid, powerful, industry backed lobbies and look at the American people. Who is your real representative. YOU ARE YOUR BEST REPRESENTATIVE. I really can't stand people who whine and complain that our government is not doing a good job but yet they don't vote or get involved in the very issues with which they're seemingly concerned. These folks are "the peanut gallery". The tremendous freedoms we enjoy in the United States REQUIRE that we each take some responsibility for our lives and help to safeguard both our rights, and the rights of others who live with us in our nation. This REQUIRES invovlement by the citizens in ALL levels of governments. This includes not just voting, but being knowledgeable about the issues which concern you and acting to further your own agendas, or at least expressing you opinions to your elected representatives. I might add that being knowledgeable involves gathering information from more than one source so that you can formulate a balanced stance and not just serve as the pawn of liberal or conservative propagandists.
Why do so few people even vote in this country? Here's one survey from the 2004 timeframe. http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepoliticalsystem/a/whynotvote.htm
Our freedoms and prosperities DEPEND on the watchful guardianship of the citizens. How can people not have the time to protect their independence? I'm just as jaded as the rest of you, but that doesn't give me an ethical or moral excuse to discontinue my efforts. I have a busy life like the rest of you, but should I not also to the time to think and act on behalf of the long term health of this country for my decendants? Have we become so accustomed to living a quick and easy life (relatively speaking compared to the rest of the world's population) that it's simply just too much trouble to be involved? Is it that we feel entitled to have the benefits promised to us by the Constitution without having to safeguard them? I just don't understand.
I look at countries around the world, like Iraq for instance, whose populations seem largely oppressed with the expectation that their government can come and take their possession, rape their families, and kill them on a whim or if they don't comply with a demand. It's hard enough for me to understand how an oppressed population lives this way without spontaneously rising up and saying "No", responding with force and making their lives better. I rationalize their continuing to live under such conditions as just a difference in cultural worldview, or that those people do not know any better because their political systems have always been that way. However, in America, we're a western culture that has been free and largely respectful of individual freedoms for over 200 years. What the hell is our excuse for lazily sitting back and allowing whoever wants power over us to just saddle up and mount us? I'm not saying that we need some kind of violent revolution in America or anything. Violence is only an inefficient tool to be used when you have reasonably exhausted other more efficient and humane methods of problem solving. We don't yet need a revolution in this country, we just need our citizens to get off their collective arses, get educated, motivated, and vote.
We could learn a thing or two from the fall of the Roman Empire. It was a very efficient empire that conquered and ruled much of the western and near eastern world for a very long time. Historians credit the fall of the Roman Empire to various reasons, not the least of which was an apathy among it's citizens to stay involved in their governance and state issues. This opened the way for only people interested in personal gain to take up the political reign and drive the Empire into the ground serving their special interests. You'll always have some people who are purely interested in personal gain, but that should not be the majority.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall..." Edmund Burke
Why do so few people even vote in this country? Here's one survey from the 2004 timeframe. http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepoliticalsystem/a/whynotvote.htm
Our freedoms and prosperities DEPEND on the watchful guardianship of the citizens. How can people not have the time to protect their independence? I'm just as jaded as the rest of you, but that doesn't give me an ethical or moral excuse to discontinue my efforts. I have a busy life like the rest of you, but should I not also to the time to think and act on behalf of the long term health of this country for my decendants? Have we become so accustomed to living a quick and easy life (relatively speaking compared to the rest of the world's population) that it's simply just too much trouble to be involved? Is it that we feel entitled to have the benefits promised to us by the Constitution without having to safeguard them? I just don't understand.
I look at countries around the world, like Iraq for instance, whose populations seem largely oppressed with the expectation that their government can come and take their possession, rape their families, and kill them on a whim or if they don't comply with a demand. It's hard enough for me to understand how an oppressed population lives this way without spontaneously rising up and saying "No", responding with force and making their lives better. I rationalize their continuing to live under such conditions as just a difference in cultural worldview, or that those people do not know any better because their political systems have always been that way. However, in America, we're a western culture that has been free and largely respectful of individual freedoms for over 200 years. What the hell is our excuse for lazily sitting back and allowing whoever wants power over us to just saddle up and mount us? I'm not saying that we need some kind of violent revolution in America or anything. Violence is only an inefficient tool to be used when you have reasonably exhausted other more efficient and humane methods of problem solving. We don't yet need a revolution in this country, we just need our citizens to get off their collective arses, get educated, motivated, and vote.
We could learn a thing or two from the fall of the Roman Empire. It was a very efficient empire that conquered and ruled much of the western and near eastern world for a very long time. Historians credit the fall of the Roman Empire to various reasons, not the least of which was an apathy among it's citizens to stay involved in their governance and state issues. This opened the way for only people interested in personal gain to take up the political reign and drive the Empire into the ground serving their special interests. You'll always have some people who are purely interested in personal gain, but that should not be the majority.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall..." Edmund Burke
posted by Bruce | 12:29 PM
2 Comments:
At the very least one should vote - Contacting your representives is also a good start. The emails get you nothing but the calls seem to get noticed.
I'd recommend going over to WesPac and joining in a conversation there. It is really refreshing when someone with some visiblity actually reads and responds to your questions.
Just saw this story
Nice to see some big businness taking note that at times their interest and the common good overlap.
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