Call to Action

We the People are not presently well represented by our elected officials.  Our basic needs are often times left to what we can muster between ourselves.  Government at all levels fails us daily.  Redresses for these outright crimes against civility are met with courts and bureaucracy that are impenetrable to appeal or petition.  From state and federal down to our county and city levels, government suffers shortcomings.  Our government has become the hindrance upon our pursuit of happiness, basic freedom, and even equality under the law.  People, this is not what government was intended to be.  Government is merely People realizing that problems can best be handled by people working together, rather than against one another.  You are not alone.  We the People left the State of Nature, in order to form a more Perfect Union.  We levied claims that We would work together to see to it that certain Rights were inalienable. Moreover, We claimed that when government failed, that it was Our Duty to fix it.  The problem is that We have become complacent, and unaware of our governments’ actions.  We don’t see, or hear reported their everyday doings, dealings, decisions, or deliberations.  More often than not, these meetings take place in executive session, behind closed doors, and well beyond the eyes and ears of the public.  Local governments fare no better holding meetings, courts, and councils in rooms not large enough to accommodate a score of public attendees.  And those charged with reporting on these events, that Free Press, being necessary to secure a Free State is woefully inadequate.  They are as bought and paid for by these officials, as can be expected.  We the People simply don’t see, or know about the shortcomings of our elected officials.  More sad, is the fact that We just don’t care.  Only about two-thirds of us are even registered to vote whom qualify, only half actually show up to vote on election day.  If there is no federal election, local and state elections' turnouts fare far worse.  The point being that, most of us are staying out of and or are completely unaware of the election process, and this is why government is so unresponsive to our daily needs.  There are no checks and thus no balances.  We have to know more about those we elect.  We have to know how they vote each and every day, on each and every issue.  We have to be the watchdogs upon our own government, lest they stray from their true purpose, to serve the Will and Needs of the People.  

This is a Call to Action.  I entreat you, reach out and lend an ear to the movements and daily actions of those whom you have and are to vote for, see for your own eyes if they represent your values and ideas, or those listed in the Constitution of the United States.  Show up at these public hearings, meetings, or councils and witness the utter and complete incompetence, as I have.  You have to see, to know and understand the depth of this problem I am calling attention to.  I have met a water board President, who couldn’t tell me and or didn’t know the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety level for lead contamination in drinking water.  I have encountered a library board President who had never heard of the Library Bill of Rights, or the American Library Association.  I have seen judges and courts ignore their own sanctioned Policies to limit the rights of citizens, merely because they had to cover for one of the officials they appointed.  Almost every time I have attended a board or counsel meeting, I have seen or heard arguments for or in favor of limiting public access to government services, the very things our tax dollars fund.  These elected officials forgot, or never initially understood, that it is their first duty to protect the individual’s right to public services, and to indeed help us gain access to these resources.  It has become far too often that I have seen the opposite.  I call on you now, to see and bear witness to the same.  Then I call on you to VOTE for those who would act in line with standards you care about.  Bear true witness to these things, and hold elected or appointed officials accountable for their shortcomings.  Governments’ failure to act, is merely our failure to oversee their actions as voters.  Politicians are re-elected most of the time, so either We don’t know or We don’t care.  Regardless, We have only ourselves to blame.  That said every passing moment is an opportunity to turn it all around.  Help me, help us, to elect a government responsive to the needs of it’s citizenry.  Let’s re-make government what it was intended to be, a State not of competitors, but teammates, intended to help and look out for one another.  We are a Community, and when We act together there is nothing We can’t achieve.  It is only when We act as individuals, that We separate ourselves from the communal goods and services that We’ve already paid for through taxes.  We are that more perfect Union, or We are merely individuals acting as competitors stuck in the State of Nature, where the one with the strongest arm and biggest stick, makes all the rules.  We Left that State, in order to form this more Perfect Union.  American Democracy may very well be the best of what Government has to offer,  but today that’s like being valedictorian of summer school. Our inaction, inattention, and general unawareness and ignorance has given us our government induced problems.  As a Democracy, We get the government we deserve. 

Today, our best is just not good enough.  Yet, all that is needed is that those who vote, to do so in an informed manner.  With that, I ask you to now, to Vote Smart, or don't at all.  Know not just the names of those who you would vote for, or what party they represent, but be able to boast of the actual votes they’ve made in line with your own beliefs.  Stop voting for incumbents who haven’t done their job, and don’t represent you or your stances.