The Issues, No. 22 - "We the People"

In addition to the President, Congress, the media, and corporate America which we have talked about previously, "we the people", who are the recipients/beneficiaries of everything the President, Congress, the media, and corporate America does, also have a profound responsibility in our democracy. And, like the others, we could do much better.

We, probably more than the people of any other nation on earth, have the ability to not only vote for whom we want, but we have the ability to let our representatives know, as often as we want, what we think and what we want them to do, without worrying about any form of retaliation. Unfortunately, most of us waste these opportunities and do not vote and do not ever contact our representatives to let them know what we think or want them to do.

A whole lot of us don't seem to care much about politics or what's going on in the country as long as everything is OK for us. We just assume that the elected officials will do what's right and will not do anything that will hurt us or our futures. If we have a complaint, we usually only discuss it with our spouses, our parents, the people we work with, or our friends --- or, in other words, people who can't do anything about it. Even if we think we might contact a representative, we might be afraid that there will be some form of retaliation and so we do nothing.

We simply have a wonderful opportunity to partner with our elected officials, to share our thoughts with them, and to help them make our country better and we don't take advantage of it. One of the purposes of the American Dream Machine is to encourage you to get involved; to vote and to share your thoughts and ideas with your elected officials. You have a great stake in this country and your thoughts and ideas are as good, and maybe better, than the thoughts and ideas of your representatives. But, if you don't let them know, they'll never hear them.

As I've said earlier, it's very easy to contact the President, your representatives in Congress, your Governor, and your state and local representatives. You can call them, write them, or email them. And most of them will send you a response. It also will not take you any time, to speak of, to do it. I've also suggested that you might just contact them and tell them you are involved in the American Dream Machine at http://americandreammachine.blogspot.com/ and that you would like them to look at and do something about the issues you are interested in. I truly believe you owe it to yourself, and maybe even to your country, to contact them all. If enough of us do it, we can truly be partners with them in making America better.