Our Herald readers never fail to thrill us.
This past week we had some fabulous letters and columns. Okay, that’s not really a surprise, but we should acknowledge the articulate writing, the caring and the zeal of involved readers and citizens. Mostly, we can allow ourselves to be amazed at how much more ability than many of our elected officials our readers have in detangling the issues that seem to befuddle Capitol Hill’ers.
We the people show far more compassion and common sense than, evidently, a majority of those voting on the laws and/or for changes therein. That is, most likely, because our lawmakers don’t feel the effects of the legislation they pass in the same way that we do. That is an unfortunate side effect of their status – a status which was, of course, never supposed to exist and which can have devastating effects on average people.
Too many are far too long in the tooth to still be constructing, destructing and voting on laws that either don’t apply to them, or don’t affect them as deeply as the average American. We have too many officials who hover above the laws, are too invested, or are simply of the tax bracket, sex, age, working strata or ilk to be significantly affected by the laws they institute. These are some of the many things creating an unfair advantage for America’s upper crust (which should never include our leadership), and are growing in strength and ubiquity among them. Our hope lies in those of our elected officials capable of compassion and empathy, who still relate to those of us actually living with the laws they pass.
I swore I was going to do a simple column this week on something lovely but, as we read, learn and become more aware, more Americans are speaking out more often. Again, the beauty of our people is that when we get roused, we get involved and try to get results. Lately, however, it seems we are losing ground every day.
We follow the development of what issues are gumming up our progress or dragging us backwards, are forced to continue to fight often for the same reasons repeatedly, increasing the volume and frequency with which we repeat ourselves. I keep picturing a cartoon of little people swirling around with their hands out for help as they fight going down the drain. Anyone who isn’t concerned about our future if we the people lose our grip or our drive to fight isn’t paying attention. If the Herald’s readers’ letters are a barometer, we’ve got right, might, and great fight left in us and the intellect to use it.
Many of us just scratch our heads and wonder at: what’s happening or not happening in our government; what’s being done or not being done by our government; and how it is working for or against the general good of America’s people, and America’s economy and our standard of living.
It’s obvious to so many average people, those less educated than our leaders, the everyday working people, that we’re losing control of the very laws we’re living under, that the nation is being increasingly controlled by a decreasing number of legislators and their supporters who belong to an ever more exclusive portion of our population. Even against our cries, it goes on: Legislation for the people without the consent of the people.
If we think of Americans at large, the people who are forced to march in protest in the streets, those clamoring for fair voting sites, even those chit-chatting on the grocery line, as any kind of barometer, we’ll see that we are, for the most part, in agreement on many issues. Yet, too many of the hardened, self-involved, self-preserving, self-everything narrow minded lawmakers on the Hill aren’t; they function for the privileged few and with antiquated mindsets – no progress, no compromise, no justice.
Many of our own elected leaders now necessitate the original fight which birthed this nation being fought again and again, setting us back centuries. We join the fracas to protect what’s left of our freedom and, indeed, restore what we’ve already lost.
The Declaration of Independence stated: “… Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed … whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government …”
Are we there yet?
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