Now, I hope that this blog will serve as a jumping off point for those you who are tired of seeing elected officials that say just enough to say nothing at all and only seem to care about taking action on things that will get them re-elected. The constitution begins, "WE THE PEOPLE, in order to form a more perfect union" which clearly stated that the union was not then and will never be perfect and therefore is always under construction. Unfortunately, construction on our country seems to have stopped a long time ago and now we have people fighting over who gets to owns the "materials" to construct this more perfect union. The funniest part about all of this is that the founding fathers of our country gave the people the most powerful tool available in the construction of our union, namely, the Democratic Republic form of government that exist in the U.S.
Tragically, most people in our country have no idea how much power they hold in deciding the direction of their city, county, state and country. Even sadder still is the fact that there are people out there who need to use the power (given by the founding fathers) more than most, but because of the constraints that come with making ends meet, raising children , etc, they most often opt out of the process believing: 1) That someone else will take care of it or 2) That it doesn't matter anyway because no one cares about what they have to say because they're not rich or they're a minority.
I cannot count how many times I have heard people of all walks of life, education , class, religion and race express both of these sentiments, and each time it reminds me just how far we have fallen as a country, society and a democratic republic. Now, I'm not gonna even start on things like accountability and responsibility because that could go on forever and I 'm hoping to be have this blog for a while, but I will take a line from one of my favorite musical artists, Harry Connick Jr.
"Honestly now, either you stand for somethin' or get knocked down for nothin' "
There are so many reasons why everyone needs to be a part of this experiment we call a Democratic Republic, but one of the simplest is that those who show up make the decisions and if you don't show up, you're leaving the fate of you and your loved ones in the hands of people you don't know and may not agree with.
If you have children, imagine allowing a complete stranger to decide who your daughter or son dates or where he or she will go to college. For those without children, imagine allowing a complete stranger to decide where you will go and what you will do today. That doesn't make a lot of sense does it? Neither does choosing not to be a part of the process which determines what roads will get fixed, how many police officers and fire fighters will be hired or fired in your town or what children will (or won't) be learning in their classes next year.
For far too long, the same small group of people have been showing up and making decisions for the silent majority and this has to stop. If it doesn't our Democratic Republic will literally be history, as in, they'll be teaching classes that will talk about a time in U.S. history that the country had a democratic form of government.
If you want to be a part of ensuring that Democracy thrives in this country, I encourage you to contribute to this conversation and use it as a spring board to more conversation with friends, family and acquaintances. My hope is that discussion will spur thought and thought will then become positive action. So, let the conversation begin before Democracy ends.
CW
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