So I begin a new journey in writing that will allow me to hopefully share my thoughts with a broader audience. Are you with me is my way of asking if you simply understand what I'm saying--not necessarily if you agree. I'm tired of not being able to express my thoughts and tired of hoping that someone will agree if I do. So sit back, hopefully you'll agree sometimes but if you don't that's OK too.
My concerns are and will continue to be the state of our nation. Politics is a big part of why I am so concerned about what is happening to us as a people since politicians seem to have little or no concern about what is happening to us in real time unless it is politically expedient for them to do so and then it is a simple nod in our direction. That sentence was too long but if you follow me, you'll see that I have a bad habit of doing that. Politicians are running for the right to represent our collective voices in the form our government takes. They often say they are listening to us. They often say they "know" what we want and occasionally they want us to believe they know what we need. But the truth is that they are so far removed from the common man that they don't remember that's where they started.
When was the last time a politician asked you what you thought? Or if you contacted your representative on either the state or federal level, when did you receive anything in return other than a courtesy return phone call from an aide saying that your message was passed along. Or maybe you received a letter from your representative telling you that they didn't agree with you followed by a long-winded reply of why they voted the way they voted. The disconnect, I think, began early in the formation of our government when it was the wealthy land owners and business owners who designed a government to represent the only people who counted--THEM. Women played a supportive role until their civil right to vote was given to them by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution on August 18, 1920 (to be seen but not heard). So I think we should expect the disconnect to continue until we raise our voices loud enough to be heard over the wealthy whose wealth makes them both the king-makers and the voice behind the curtain.
Truth be told they fear us. All of them fear us because WE are the power of the government and we can remove them at any time. Look how they are scrambling this year to restrict registration and voting, to redistrict voters to their benefit, to make us believe that voter fraud (voters who have already voted, voting under another name or group votes that are not based on legitimate registrations). They are working very hard to take the vote away from all of us. To remove what they have always said is the greatest freedom we have--freedom to choose and then to vote that choice. If they get their way, then there will be no freedom left for us to choose. Voter fraud is not and never has been the problem they try to make it out to be. But voter disenfranchisement has been on the rise since W faked his way through his first election. Voter disenfranchisement is PREVENTING people who are legally registered from voting or discounting their votes for some trumped up reason. We've already had one election decided by the Supreme Court. Was that legal? I don't think so.
We had to fight, many of us, to get the right to vote--during Vietnam, young men were drafted at age 18 to fight and die for their country BUT they could not vote. The voting age was not changed from 21 to 18 until 1992 when the 27th Amendment was ratified. It actually took 3 Amendments to the Constitution to get all of us the RIGHT to vote...15th, 19th and 27th. So you can see they need to do something now to restrict the power that we have to elect or not elect them to endless terms of lucrative service to the monied elite.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident (doesn't take a genius to recognize) that all Men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (originally property). That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their JUST powers from the CONSENT of the GOVERNED, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ENDS, it is the RIGHT of the PEOPLE to ALTER or ABOLISH it, and to institute NEW Government..."
Unfortunately, what they believed was their right does not trickle down to us. But it is clear what they believed and how they acted to pursue the changes they needed to make a government that Lincoln would later proclaim was "of the people, by the people and For the people". They have words that are sometimes assuring but their actions offer neither real plans nor real assurances of any kind. So what can we do? We can make ourselves as knowledgeable of the issues as possible, as knowledgeable about the candidates as possible and that means more than listing to their TV ads. If they are not working for all the people then you'll know it soon enough. You'll find yourself seeking out magazines, books and TV exposes because you want to be an informed voter--especially since so many of your predecessors fought so hard to be granted that right in our Constitution.
And what you'll read here is mostly my opinion on those facts. I have one warning as far as getting correct information goes--do not watch FOX. Their opinions are not based on the truth and neither are their "facts". They are as they have been, pure political propaganda! And propaganda is simply repeating a lie over and over until people accept it as truth. We'll have enough trouble sorting out the truth from the politicians themselves!
Are you with me so far?
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