Where We Stand

A forwarded email I received a week ago stated that all our countries problems are the fault of 545 different people, 100 Senators, 539 Representatives & 9 Supreme Court Judges.

After giving it some thought, I answered the email, with this thought.

I read your email however it is not quite this simple. By saying this I do not condone all that is going on in our Legislatures, however the author missed the point!

The real problem is not the 545, it is the 300+ million who do not take an active roll in the political process.

Very few people can name more than one of their US congressional representatives (MO has 9), there are multitudes who cannot name their Senators, I doubt that there is 3% of the adult population who can name 5 of the 9 Supreme Court Judges.

I also doubt if more than 1% of our states population has ever written a real letter either supporting or opposing an issue to any of the State or Federal legislators. I also doubt that even 1/10th of our population has ever taken the time to go to the State Capitol and testify in favor or oppose a piece of legislation.

The greatest percentage of our population can quote stats on sports teams and individual athletes. Most can give a running commentary of the latest TV reality shows or Soaps (afternoon violence and porn).

Because of this inaction and lack of interest, the general population has abrogated not only it’s rights, but it’s responsibility.

In a sense, we are reaping what has been sown.

I am very sorry that I waited till I was 67 before I started practicing "Participating Citizenship". By the way that term came from a BSA program which dates back to the 70's.