Preparing for Nov. 7, 2006 Election: 10 Months to Study for the Test, and Only One Chance to Pass
Guy T. Sturino
January 03, 2006
This morning each one of us woke up as one of 300,000,000 citizens of the United States. Two hundred twenty million of us are old enough to vote, and are supposedly responsible for our own well being. Five million of us are old enough to fight and possibly die for our country, but not yet old enough to drink. Some of us pray for the rest of us, and some of us prey on the rest of us. Far too many of us just don’t give a damn one way or the other.
We are told that we live in the “Information Age”, but real information is scarse. As we browse the morning paper or surf through various TV news stations we seem to get a lot of information. Unfortunately, most of what we’re getting is misinformation, disinformation, cherry picked information and, all too often, just outright lies. So what’s a person to do? Well, it seems that a lot of people simply decide not to pay any attention at all. Certainly the fact that only slightly over half of those eligible to vote bothered to do so the last time has a lot to do with how we feel about what we hear from those who are supposed to “know.”
But, if people don’t pay attention, and people don’t vote, then how are we supposed to get our country back? Oh, that’s right -- more than half of us don’t even know we lost it. For those of you who still don’t know it yet, consider this. Last year the Congress passed at least two major laws which took away our recourse to petition the court when we’ve been wronged. First the gun lobby managed to cut the judicial branch out of the picture when it comes to the misuse of firearms. Then, the last thing the Senate did before breaking for Christmas was to approve a measure which took away our rights to judicial recourse if we have been wronged by the pharmaceutical industry. However, I fail to see in the Constitution of the United States where the legislative branch has the power to deny the people access to the courts. Evidently, they wanted the power -- so they took it.
Doing first, and asking for forgiveness later, seems to be the way our country works today. By now everyone is aware that our President used an executive order to allow wiretapping without the oversight of the judicial branch of our government. Congress did not give him the authority to issue such an order, so the administrative branch disregarded both the legislative branch and the judicial branch to do as it pleased. Does anyone still not agree that the people need to get their country back?
Or maybe a better question is - do enough people care? Do enough people really care that our elected representatives tell us what we want to hear, through commercials paid for by their corporate sponsors, and then do just enough of what they promised so that maybe people won’t notice how well they kept all of their promises to their sponsors?
For the past five years the Congress has applied a shadow preamble to our constitution which apparently reads, “Of the corporations, for the corporations, and by the corporations.” During the next ten months, “We, the People of the United States of America,” need to get off of our collective behinds, separate the sugar from the salt, decide what we want from our government, and elect the right people for the job.
It is hard not to wonder if it is possible that about half of voting age citizens simply want someone to rule the country so they can be left alone? If that’s the case, maybe trying to get them to want their country back is a waste of time. Why should they want back what they never wanted in the first place?
In ten short months, those who care will be trying to sort the wheat from the chaff. However, the skill with which the news is manipulated and spun by those in power is making the job more like separating fly specks from pepper. No one else will do the work for us and give us anything but leftovers. If we want to be governed and not ruled we must educate ourselves and vote accordingly, and convince as many others as we can to do the same.
Regardless, come next November we will have the opportunity to choose again. And this time we need to be sure that everyone eligible to vote can vote, and that all votes are properly tallied. Then we need to spend the rest of our time making sure that those we elect work for us and not for some corporate sponsor with a hidden agenda.
Our fate is in our own hands.
We are told that we live in the “Information Age”, but real information is scarse. As we browse the morning paper or surf through various TV news stations we seem to get a lot of information. Unfortunately, most of what we’re getting is misinformation, disinformation, cherry picked information and, all too often, just outright lies. So what’s a person to do? Well, it seems that a lot of people simply decide not to pay any attention at all. Certainly the fact that only slightly over half of those eligible to vote bothered to do so the last time has a lot to do with how we feel about what we hear from those who are supposed to “know.”
But, if people don’t pay attention, and people don’t vote, then how are we supposed to get our country back? Oh, that’s right -- more than half of us don’t even know we lost it. For those of you who still don’t know it yet, consider this. Last year the Congress passed at least two major laws which took away our recourse to petition the court when we’ve been wronged. First the gun lobby managed to cut the judicial branch out of the picture when it comes to the misuse of firearms. Then, the last thing the Senate did before breaking for Christmas was to approve a measure which took away our rights to judicial recourse if we have been wronged by the pharmaceutical industry. However, I fail to see in the Constitution of the United States where the legislative branch has the power to deny the people access to the courts. Evidently, they wanted the power -- so they took it.
Doing first, and asking for forgiveness later, seems to be the way our country works today. By now everyone is aware that our President used an executive order to allow wiretapping without the oversight of the judicial branch of our government. Congress did not give him the authority to issue such an order, so the administrative branch disregarded both the legislative branch and the judicial branch to do as it pleased. Does anyone still not agree that the people need to get their country back?
Or maybe a better question is - do enough people care? Do enough people really care that our elected representatives tell us what we want to hear, through commercials paid for by their corporate sponsors, and then do just enough of what they promised so that maybe people won’t notice how well they kept all of their promises to their sponsors?
For the past five years the Congress has applied a shadow preamble to our constitution which apparently reads, “Of the corporations, for the corporations, and by the corporations.” During the next ten months, “We, the People of the United States of America,” need to get off of our collective behinds, separate the sugar from the salt, decide what we want from our government, and elect the right people for the job.
It is hard not to wonder if it is possible that about half of voting age citizens simply want someone to rule the country so they can be left alone? If that’s the case, maybe trying to get them to want their country back is a waste of time. Why should they want back what they never wanted in the first place?
In ten short months, those who care will be trying to sort the wheat from the chaff. However, the skill with which the news is manipulated and spun by those in power is making the job more like separating fly specks from pepper. No one else will do the work for us and give us anything but leftovers. If we want to be governed and not ruled we must educate ourselves and vote accordingly, and convince as many others as we can to do the same.
Regardless, come next November we will have the opportunity to choose again. And this time we need to be sure that everyone eligible to vote can vote, and that all votes are properly tallied. Then we need to spend the rest of our time making sure that those we elect work for us and not for some corporate sponsor with a hidden agenda.
Our fate is in our own hands.
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