The People’s Business
“It’s not the person who wants to arrive at the top; it’s the person who is ready to move ahead. Not to woo, but to move forward. And I think this is also why you are more popular or not. If people think that you serve a cause, they love you. If people feel that you’re self-serving, you lose the confidence.”
~ Shimon Peres ~
So maybe we have a deal in Washington, and for the first time in its’ history the United States may not face a downgrade in our credit rating, and/or default on our bills. Am I alone in waiting to celebrate?
I cannot recall a more ridiculous time in Washington D.C., nor have I ever felt more strongly that not a single incumbent should be re-elected. Whatever advantage experience brings, it cannot override the cost of complacency and narcissism which has overrun our elected officials – who are supposed to be in Washington to serve the people, not to create sound bites and look for ways to discredit and destroy those of the other political party. This entire spectacle has been embarrassing and depressing.
Surely, one does not have to be an economist to observe that our nation and our people are facing desperate days. Regardless of the terminology, be it recession, depression, stagnation, slump, or decline, the American economy is faltering. Americans are struggling to survive, and we all know the stories too well – from rising food and fuel cost, to foreclosed homes and laid-off workers, and governments trying to figure out how to pay their bills.
Yet, while the American voter is working to feed their families, our elected officials are working to get their face on television, as they spew stupidity, threating to withhold social security checks and payment to our soldiers and their families.
Thomas Jefferson said: “What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” Was he thinking of such a time as this? I am not advocating for a literal rebellion, but perhaps it is time for an electoral rebellion.
Our forefathers and their families withstood great personal sacrifice to serve their nation. They risked personal fortunes, and endured long absences from their loved ones, in order that they may gather together to birth, through compromise, what would become the United States of America. Today, where is this spirit of sacrifice for the greater good?
If you were given two years in the United States House of Representatives, or four years in the White House, or six years in the United States Senate, what would you do with your time? With one term to serve, in one of these three seats of power and prestige, what could you accomplish? Where would you focus your time and energy? What would you hope to accomplish in one term? What would your legacy be? Would you work toward improving and empowering the people who elected you, or would you focus instead on you? What would our elected officials do if they had only one term to serve? If instead of working on their re-election campaigns they had to focus on serving the term they were elected to, would they conduct themselves differently?
What did your senators, governor, president, and representative promise to do, which earned them your vote? Have they honored their campaign promises and agendas? Are we making them accountable for their words and deeds? How are these elected leaders addressing our deepening financial crisis?
Jefferson also said: “I say, the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and encumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence.”
The generation in power today is leaving an inheritance of debt, for future generations. How will the burden of the past impact those in the future? It is not just to ask those who did not incur this debt to pay it, when with some sacrifice and compromise we are capable of paying our own bills. Our nation needs leadership, and I believe that it is time for the people to rise up, and take their power back. Regardless of what happens with a “deal” in Washington to address this latest crisis, I believe it is time that we reacquaint ourselves with our own power – write an email! Let those in power know that they cannot count on your vote, unless they act on your behalf.
All of our elected officials can and should be contacted: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
Our elected officials have become complacent in their seats of power, and have forgotten that they were sent to the nations and states capitols to advance the cause of the people who entrusted them with a vote; and it is time to be about the people’s business. That is all for now.
