Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Your Political Power

No one can take your political power away from you unless you give it away.  No one can take it unless you allow those in charge take away your collective bargaining rights, demolish your educational system and make sure you don't have Social Security and Medicare at a time you are too frail to take care of yourself.  Can you imagine your grandparents picking  tomatoes off the fields in triple-digit temperatures for less than a $1.00 a bucket? Can you see yourself doing it now? let alone two or three decades later?

The pundits are raking in the money over our collective misery, the ratings soar on talk show radio and television when there is conflict, drama and anxiety.  Wall Street is doing fine, how is your 401K? How is your ROTH account? - Do you even have any of that left? Where you able to contribute?

Have you been unemployed for months or a couple of years? Are you hanging on to a job you hate because you have no other choice and feel trapped? - Your quality of life is directly linked to your political power and if you don't do anything to change the course this runaway Congress is headed, you, me and your neighbor down the street are going to become homeless and begging for sustenance at soup kitchens.

Do you think this is not going to happen? - Take a look at the relentless requests for donations to support free-clinics around the state and take a look at the lines of people who have not been feeling well for years, but pulled themselves up by their boot straps and endure pain and illness without relief. 

The letter on the debt ceiling issue to your Congressman can be sent to your Senators as well.  You can change it around, you can use it as a template for what you want to say, you can fax it, e-mail it, or send it snail mail, but please do something to have your voice heard by the elected officials.

You have every right to make your voices heard and while we all enjoy venting on social media to one another, no one hears us except our followers and we are stuck in a useless loop of anger and anxiety that does nothing to resolve the situation.

Your political power is your ability to take civilized action to effectuate changes.  When you feel dejected, take a look at our neighbors in Wisconsin and their ongoing struggle to rectify some incomprehensible wrongs perpetrated by a governor that is wholly owned by the corporations.

Wisconsin workers are exercising their political power and we need to do the same across the nation before the middle class is completely devastated beyond repair.  

It is not a myth: Divided, we fall. United, we can move mountains.  It does not get more grassroots than this: taking action towards a common goal collectively.  

If you are a progressive so far to the left that you can't see the right anymore, you need to side with your centrists, moderate neighbors and steer this ship in the right direction.  There will be time afterwards to pass better agendas and have a healthy discussion about any topic.

Before we do that, we need to stop the chaos and disorganization that has permeated the left since its inception. Strengthening your political power depends on the support of other like-minded individuals who think in term of "us" not "me"

Talk to each other in social media, but please, I beg you... Talk to your elected officials and demand responses because in your resolve and action, lies your power.

Donate directly to The National Association Of Free Clinics if you can. 

Get Involved Ideas:
  • Join MoveOn.org or any other organization that aligns with your way of thinking. 
  • Join your local Democratic Chapter and attend meetings and get involved at the local level, because every state's success or failures in civil rights and governance we share collectively. 
  • Find out how hard or easy it is in your state for young, old and poor to be able to vote. Be an advocate for them and make sure you and people like you, will allow their voices to be heard this coming election cycle.
  • Join your local union chapters and get involved in lending a hand, your skills, your knowledge and your passion.  You don't have to work for the union to volunteer.
If you have any other ideas we can add to this list, please share with us.  The more of us thinking and working together, the better our solutions.


PEACE - Olivia


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very well written...

Unknown said...

Thank you