I decided to start this blog after reading "Nicole's Soapbox" blog....she says there that she doesn't see by the entries on twitter and noone following her blog where many people seem to be concerned about the future and direction of our country. Well, I am concerned! Actually, I was just having this conversation with my husband last night.....we ALL seem to sit back and wait for someone else to take up our cause, because WE are too busy to do it ourselves.
I don't want to look back in a few years and regret that I didn't participate....so I will "give it my best" starting with this blog and sharing my thoughts, experiences and observations of other "regular" citizens in our country as seen from our little part of the country here in the beautiful Florida Keys.
I had an interesting discussion with an older lady in the beauty shop yesterday. She was speaking in spanish with the owner of the shop. I don't really speak spanish but I understand enough spanish to gather the "gist" of the conversation. I couldn't help inserting myself into their conversation by responding (in english).....once they realized that I was interested in the topic of their conversation they began to speak with me in english.
The older lady was very upset because she had just learned that her Medicare payments would be increasing - yet there is not going to be a cost of living increase in Social Security, which is her only source of income now that she is 77 years old and no longer able to work. She proudly declares that she was sworn in as an American citizen after coming to the United States from Cuba over 50 years ago - she worked and paid taxes for fifty years and is now entitled to collect retirement benefits from Social Security. But
more than the increase of her monthly expenses and no change in her income to off-set it, she was upset that the changes that she is seeing in our country today are eerily reminiscent of how communism took hold of Cuba.
This lady told me that same thing happened in Cuba as she sees happening here...
no one was paying attention! She says that she cannot seem to impress upon her children, grandchilren, neighbors and friends that if they do not pay attention and get involved in what is going on in our government that there will be irreversible changes made in our country - changes that we will not like and be unable to do anything about it!
The lady and I had a very long conversation and discussed, among other things - the current Healthcare Reform bill and the Stimulus Plan - and how we have been
powerless to do anything about them being passed - due to the democratic majority in Washington -
even though they (the democrats) do not represent the opinions of the majority of the people in the country!! She wonders, how did we allow such a thing to become a possibility in this country? She does not believe that our founding fathers would have been able to anticipate "congressional districts" in the future that would allow such an imbalance of power to occur.
The lady finished with her appointment and upon leaving the salon said to me "I am comforted by meeting you - I now know that there are at least a few young people paying attention to what is going on with our government". Under any other circumstances, the conversation I had with that lady would have been only an incidental interaction and never thought of again - but I have not been able to get her words, and much more impressive, the look of concern on her face - out of my mind!
I am overwhelmed with the thought that we (American citizens) are now in the position that such monumental decisions can be made that will
profoundly affect our future (not to mention our children's, grandchildren's and great-grandchildren's) without unanimous consent from ALL of us - not just the democrats!
I AM very concerned that we (American citizens) have not paid attention to how our government is structured. How do we regain, and assure going forward, that representation is balanced and truly representative of the people of this country? To copy a line from Nicole's blog "are we (conservatives, liberals and those who don't have time to decide) really so different in our basic beliefs"? I don't think so....I think we would ALL agree that we still (for now, anyway) live in the greatest country in the world and that we would do anything to keep it that way.
As Americans we have always understood that we will have differences of opinions, but we have also trusted that our government would do it's best to make decisions that were supported by MOST of us! We now know that the latter is not the case. Once the balance of representation was able to become un-balanced, so did our trust in the decisions made. Since this "un-balance of power" has occured, we (Americans) spend a great deal of time arguing, questioning and worrying about
all decisions made and whether or not they are in our best interest.
Our country is in a very vulnerable position and
most of us have not even had a say in putting us there! Just one example of this vulnerabilty is the enormous amounts of money this unbalanced government has borrowed from other countries. What would we do if China called it's loans? We don't have the means to repay them - so what does China have for collateral? What influence would we be able to exert on China if, hypothetically speaking, they decided to build a military base on some of the thousands of acres of land they may have bought here in the U.S.? Again, most of us have had no say in putting us into this hypothetical situation!
So, how do we regain "balance" in Washington? We have to go all of the way down to the roots, so to speak, of this tree we know as our government to learn how the leaves are formed. Apparently, the root is the census data! Worried yet? (You should be....look who is now in charge of the census!)
The census data determines congressional districts! Is this the most "fair" way to determine the make-up of our federal government? One area of any state may have more people living in it than another so they may have more districts (and representatives) than other states. I think we should go all of the way back to the "roots" of the tree of our government and find a better way to assure equity of representation. One suggestion would be to have an equal number of representatives from every state (2, 4, 6 - whatever we decide the number should be) with equal numbers from each party (perhaps add a 3rd party - independents). Then, each state could allow the districts to vote within the state to determine the final state representatives. Then, each state would have the same number of representatives and equal "weight" when voting on Federal/National issues. The way the system works now, California (which has more representatives) has more influence (votes) on issues that affect the entire country!
I think that the reason so many people are out on the streets and at town hall meetings is that they feel that their voices and wishes are going unheard and disrespected. I don't think this would be so much of a problem if we felt that we had
equal representation. Right now, we are all aware that these major decisions are being made by
disportionately elected officials - we are constantly reminded that "democrats have enough votes to push this through whether they get republican support or not".
This is the major reason that there should never be more of one party than the other !! If every state had the same number of democrats and republicans (and/or independents) - then at least there would be a equal representation.
