7/22/2009
Yeah. Ignorance is not bliss
Or “Making a difference – keep at it.” Today’s title is nabbed from a MacIver Institute piece yesterday by Brett Healy:
Keeping informed … is more labor intensive than the days when everyone skimmed their jam-packed daily newspaper in the morning, perhaps another one in the afternoon, watched a half hour of network news before dinner and kept an eye on the local TV news before Johnny Carson came on.
But an informed citizenry is a vital component for a healthy democracy. It can be done. One now just has to work a little harder to come by the information.
That has “FoxPolitics News” written all over it! (Of course, I’m completely biased – but if you’re not a subscriber – it’s free! – subscribe here.)
Ok. So you stay informed, which isn’t easy. Now what? Time to DO something. And that’s not easy either. FP readers expressed post-Tea Party frustrations. Duke says Tea Parties must go further.
But I have a problem: Now that all the signs have been taken home, and all the garbage dutifully placed where it belongs, what changed? It looks like people are travelling from far and wide to express their hope that something will change.
…. This is where we meet the firewall - at the door to the elected representative's office; at the door to party headquarters, and at the desk of the political apparatchik that knows better than we do what he/she wants to accomplish.
So far, this is as far as the Tea Party seems to go. The question is when, where and how do we replace not just the individuals, but the political engines that put them where they've nested. How do we get rid of the faux centrist Democrats..., and Republicans? Mike Thomas warns of inaction. (Counting on you Mike, to Make those calls, knock on those doors!)
I think most politicians think that we have short memories and won't spend the time to hold them accountable. If we sit on our hands for this next election cycle, I am afraid the pendulum will have swung too far and we won't be able to stop it. So get involved, keep abreast of the issues, and make your voice heard. I hope we have awakened a sleeping giant. Bobbie repeats – speak up loudly and often.
Well...I was there and the enthusiasm was great and the atmosphere was "electric". I had tears in my eyes as, unasked, people stood when "I'm Proud to Be An American" was played through the sound system.
If enough of us do as we were encouraged to do....speak up, loudly and often, our message to take back our America will be heard. Platitudes, I suppose it could be said. But dang it. Folks are frustrated – really frustrated – in an atmosphere of more and more government intrusion, change (and hope?) can’t come fast enough. Stay informed. It’s our line of first defense – on which we must base our constant, never-let-up actions for change.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
"Stay Informed", okay what does that mean? If informed is listening carefully to all voices and then after careful consideration taking a position, I'm in. I worry that "Stay Informed" in this context means showing up at rallies that are politically organized to drive home a particular political point of view, then count me out. Polarization paralizes. Bi-partisanship is a myth and the current drift back into the abyss of polarized politics does not bode well for our future. It is the reason why we take 5 decades of ad nauseum debate to land on a health care system that works for all Americans. I for one will be "Proud to be an American" and maybe even weep when every man woman and child in America has access to quality health care.
Billie (Wed Jul 22 08:54:04 2009)
Jo:
I will be doing more than knocking on doors and making calls. I plan to facilitate a strategic planning session with invited conservatives this fall to develop an actual game plan on how we can take back our government.
I agree that the "Tea Parties" are a good start and certainly motivate a person when you are there, but without action it is sort of like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
My mother used to call this complaining without action "closet bitching". You may feel good but nothing gets done. So stay tuned, there will be plenty of opportunity to get involved with this movement.
Mike
Mike Thomas (Wed Jul 22 09:01:45 2009)
'Stay informed' means read, read, read. Listen and watch too. Access credible, well-researched and reported news. Local, state, federal. Listen and question. Read, read, read.
Jo
Jo,
I was just talking about this stuff this morning with my beautician! She's a member of the Neenah Business Improvement District Board and we talk shop while she makes me look beautiful.
Staying informed is one thing. That's sort of like a golfer staying up on all the latest equipment improvements even though he can't afford them.
Much of government is based on planning, that great, over-arching, all-encompassing, bureaucratic principle. It's at the root of every encroaching government intrusion into our lives.
To take a trivial, yet annoyingly persistent example: sidewalks. If there are no city sidewalks in front of your house, you may want to take a look at the planning map for streets and sidewalks.
If you live on a street that is classified as a "neighborhood sub-collector", then you have a chance to delay construction of sidewalks for a long time. But it takes vigilance and dedication. It takes a petition of your neighbors to make the city council sit up and take notice. It takes writing to aldermen. It takes going to budget meetings.
Then, if you successfully forestall the construction for this year, you have to do it all over again a couple years down the road.
That's because those lines on that street and sidewalk planning map never get erased. That's the great mystery of city planning. A little dotted line crawling through your neighborhood represents $1000 to $2000 or so in special assessments that will magically appear on your property tax bill unless you go back to the well every couple of years – and get all your neighbors to go with you.
You'd think that that little dotted line would simply vanish after a couple rounds of petitions and budget hearings ... but no! The dotted line is mightier than the petitioner. As soon as your neighbors get tired of you passing around a petition, or you miss a deadline for submitting one, or you simply get tired of doing it, voil! A brand new sidewalk!
Sorry to make such a protracted foray into sidewalks, but it's an excellent example of how government works. Once something is planned – whether it's a sidewalk, a street, a community center, a highway, a tax, a law, etc. – it will happen. The only thing that us poor dumb voters can do is to try to delay the inevitable.
A petition to stop a sidewalk is fairly simple: everyone that's eligible to sign it lives on your street. But if you are looking to reverse an already existing policy, then you have to circulate a petition to have a referendum placed on the ballot. Depending on the size of your city, that can mean thousands of signatures that need to be gathered within a 60-day period. State-wide, nation-wide ... now you're talking real work.
Steve Erbach, Neenah The Town Crank (Wed Jul 22 10:04:02 2009)
Billie, if you think "access to quality health care" isn't ALREADY happening in the US, maybe you should try Bangladesh, or even Mexico to get a perspective.
WE DO have "access"; it's only that a) you can't force people to be responsible and take care of themselves, or keep dr. appointments and b) that some people do have to jump through a few more hoops. But they're not PROHIBITED from seeing a dr. nor are they in areas (as in aforementioned countries) where there simply ARE no drs.
When we get government-funded health care, I predict an increasing shortage of doctors and nurses, as at least some of us will quit rather than have to put up with more of the "you owe me" attitudes, and irresponsible nonsense that we already see on a daily basis.
Maybe then we'll see what "no access" really means.
emily matthews (Wed Jul 22 10:23:19 2009)
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