Wednesday, October 22, 2008

No perfect choices, yet choices must be made


I had some interesting feedback from my last post.
Just for the record, I do not believe Barack Obama is a perfect candidate.
The Democratic Party is not a perfect party.
I consider myself an Independent Voter.
We don’t always get perfect choices, but we do have to make choices.
With that said, I am casting my vote for Barack Obama.
I hope you all make the best choice you can.

What I am most interested in is this: What are you going to do after the election?

I think much of what has gone wrong with our government in my life time is the result of an uninterested, under-informed, unengaged population of citizens. We have allowed the institutions and representatives of the people be influenced and purchased by corporations. It is going to take a lot of work for us to reassert the rightful place of the people in this representative republic of ours. But it is work that must be done to protect our lives and the future of our children and generations to come.

No matter who gets elected in November, we have to commit ourselves to the same task: We have to strive to be better informed and more active in monitoring the actions of our representatives, and we must do a better job of informing our government of our core beliefs, interests and desires. Only then can we hold government accountable to the will of the people.

I have my preference for who gets elected this November. I doubt everyone I vote for will be elected. But all of those elected, be they president, governor, congressman, or city councilperson, have a responsibility to represent all the people who voted. And we have a responsibility to be aware of what they are doing and what they plan on doing. We have a responsibility to communicate with our representatives as clearly as we are able.

And that means you have a responsibility to know what your core beliefs, interests and desires are. If you don’t, then you need to figure it out. And if you don’t share those things with your representatives, how can you expect them to represent you?

So no matter who is president in January. I hope that we can all be better citizens than we have been.
---------Jay the Citizen
Meanwhile, check this out: http://www.conservativesforchange.com/

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jay,
I'm with you, voting Obama, but investing my energy in building an independent movement that gives voice to ordinary folks. Check out www.independentvoting.org. There's a new video by CUIP president Jackie Salit there where she offers commentary on the financial crisis, the McCain and Obama candidacies, the role of independent voters and much more. Eager for your feedback

Gwen
www.independentvoting.org