philly

Jane asked last week: What is our part of the bargain?" when it comes to involvement in politics. She's posted her thoughts today and now, I offer a smidge of what I think…

Get off our own fucking asses and get others off their fucking asses. We are supposed to be this great swinging dick of democracy, but look at what we've become. An apathetic blob of nothingness that talks the talk and has stopped walking the walk. A society that somehow considers Faux News as the most reliable news source [I'm not saying the rest are head and shoulders better, but come-fucking-on] within our borders; not that most Americans would ever bother considering other english language sources like BBC News or god forbid Al Jazeera as credible.

We have to educate ourselves first and then spread the gospel. Educate, educate, educate. Get people informed. When people are informed, they tend to make better decisions. Look at how people voted in the last presidential election. There was a large study after the election on how and why people voted. I can't recall the name of the study, but I think it was based out of Maryland. They asked a series of questions in regards to how people voted and their knowledge of the situation in Iraq. One series asked if they thought Saddam Hussein had WMD and how that influenced their decision to vote. Then asked whether finding out that Saddam Hussein did not have WMD, if that would have changed their vote. I don't recall the exact numbers, but a ridiculous majority had no idea Hussein did not have WMD and would've voted for Kerry if they had known.

That shows me that those BushCo fuckers did a very good job playing to peoples' fears. Disgusting that they did it, but they did so very effectively and I can't say otherwise. What that also shows me is that when people are educated, it's harder to scare them by playing on fears, because they simply know better.

Volunteering your time, money, office supplies, cell phones… to a campaign you believe in is a good start as well. I basically took up a part time job for free for the better part of three months working with an incredible group of people on Chuck Pennacchio's Senate run. I spent around twenty hours a week doing one thing or another with those wonderful people and I wouldn't have traded that for anything. But not everyone has the resources and the support [I couldn't have done it without Lady] to put in twenty hours a week. But I don't think it's too much to ask to put in an hour a week. You don't even have to leave your home for many things. If you have a computer and internet access, you can help sift through data. You can stuff envelopes. You can go run supplies to/fro the HQ. You can put up a yard sign or print out your own window sign. You can call your friends and tell them to call theirs. Write a letter to the editor; around election time, the op-ed pages are always stirring with editorials on local/state/national elections.

This could go on for hours, but this is a start. Educate and participate. This democracy is dying. It is literally crumbling down in front of our eyes in real time. Every decision made and not made affects you, me and everyone around us here and abroad. And all this starts locally: in your head, in your circle of friends, in your neighborhood, in your town, in your city, in your county.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 2nd, 2006 @ 11:35 am. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or trackback from your own site. Your comments will be moderated [if you have never previously commented] but will appear as soon as humanly possible.