Decide the Fate of Our Country. Vote.

I’m just going to preface this article with the admonition that I am not a political person. I am a person who likes to dwell in the realm of ideas and the political arena always seemed like the Bermuda Triangle where good ideas get lost in the dead zone of bureaucracy. So I avoided it, preferring to leave the running of this country in the hands of people whom I assumed were more experienced and knowledgeable about the dynamics of governing a country.

But then two things happened that snapped me out of that fantasy world that I had been living in for the past four elections; Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was added to the Republican Party ticket and the economy took a nosedive. That’s when I realized that our political leaders are anything but leaders and that the political process had deteriorated beyond all recognition.

It has become quite clear to me that we, as a nation, have fallen asleep at the wheel and as a result, we have been appropriately sideswiped. I can make a compelling case as to why we fell asleep. We are stressed out, over medicated, under educated and too busy. Most of all, we are afraid. We are afraid of losing the lives we have built for ourselves, however meager they may be.

The fact of the matter is these are really just excuses we tell ourselves to justify not being involved in the governmental process. We knew that there was something very wrong with this country but we chose to ignore it. We thought that to confront it would mean the loss of the things we hold dear. But through our inaction, we brought about the very thing we feared; the loss of our hopes and dreams. Our dream homes, our wonderful jobs, the loss of our children and spouses to war and the loss of the adventurous retirement we had been saving up for. We only have ourselves to blame.

The good thing is, dire though it may seem, it’s not too late. However we need to take action. Now. We must take back control of our government. Government officials are called public servants but they have been serving special interests for far, far too long. My favorite line in the movie V for Vendetta (A movie I highly recommend watching by the way) is when V tells the citizens of England that “People should not be afraid of their government. Government should be afraid of their people.” Meaning that control of the country should always be in the hands of the people and that government should be LISTENING to us not DICTATING to us.

This presidential election is only the start of the road that leads back to the principles this country were founded on. Congress in its entirety will need to be scrutinized and anyone who has been putting their own self-interests above the interests of the nation needs to be shown the door. We need to encourage and support the people in office (or who would run for office) who truly believe in honesty, fairness and integrity.

Eventually, this bi-party system we have will need to be replaced with something more effective and less divisive. Why is that we can go to a grocery store and select from 30 different types of cereal but when it comes to something as important as governing our country, we only have two parties to choose from? Seriously.

We owe it to ourselves, our nation and the world to demand higher standards for our leaders and ourselves. We can no longer afford to sleep walk through life. It’s time to wake up and take responsibility for our future. For as Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Do something. Vote.

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One Response to “Decide the Fate of Our Country. Vote.”

1. Corey Freeman says:

   November 4, 2008 at 8:06 am

   I like the points you’ve made in this article. A quote from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comes to mind: “Anyone capable of getting themselves elected president is in no way qualified to do the job.” I am not particularly political myself, but I do believe we should be focusing on the things that make absolutely no sense in the system and changing them.

   I don’t think all of the problem has to do with people not voting, but rather, HOW they’re voting. People need to be informed, and they need to speak up and be active. The country has yet to really get into this part, and those that are are being called fanatics. (some of them are, but you get my point.)

   Nice article, and thanks for stopping by Diligent. It’s always fun to read the stuff you write!