Americans, Get Engaged, Or Stop Whining
On the 23rd of July, 2010 5:29 PM, Tony Caputo wrote an email, responding to: "I think they're a bunch of crooks," said Macias. Caputo's response was "FIRE ALL INCUMBENTS!"
In "California town outraged to learn of officials' pay," an AP story by John Rogers, residents in Bell, California, were angry. Their city manager was paid more than $700,000 last year. Bell is a modest blue-collar Los Angeles suburb. One in six people live in poverty.
The message from this is not to fire all incumbents.
The message is to "Wake up America," check to see what your elected officials are doing and get off your rear end, learn the issues, listen to what people say, tell them what you want, and VOTE!
That doesn't end the obligation, then you have to be vigilant and check to see what the elected officials say and do.
America is a joke, with its 20% voting participation record. And the US government had the damned gall to tell the people of Nepal that their election, organized by the King of Nepal, was a sham.
In Nepal in 2007, there was an overall 60% turnout, even though there was massive intimidation by the Maoists and others, with 33 of 20,000 polling places shut down and several people shot at or killed. In many areas, Maoists threatened to kill anyone who participated. Under threat of death, they still managed 60%
Iraqis, those people that many think America is teaching about democracy, managed 60% to 75% turnouts, also under threats of death and violence.
Yet in the land of the free, the so-called shining beacon to the rest of the world, complete apathy allows elections to be decided by 20-30% or similar low percentages.
America's attention span is about 15 minutes. You have to change that.
It will be very telling, this year, to see if Americans have learned any lessons, of if they really do not care what anyone does to them or does in their name.
Get engaged, and get your friends and neighbors engaged, or stop whining, sit back and take what gets dished out to you.
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
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