It's no secret that our political environment is toxic and has been for a while. Growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s I never got to witness for myself winning strokes in political history. The image of my first president was tainted by a sex scandal. My first memory of the voting process was littered with doubt about its legitimacy. My second president spoke less articulately than most of my classmates. The national crisis I lived through was used as a tool to begin an everlasting war justified by false evidence, vague notions of a world ruled by democracy, and thinly veiled economic interests. The first president I believed in, while projecting an earnest image, seems caught in the same agenda that propelled us eastward in the first place. Aspersions are cast about his credentials and citizenship by a man with hair implants and a woman who can't be bothered to be more informed than the average citizen. The intellectualism and honesty of the conservative party is all but gone. The bravery and push for change of the liberal party seems misplaced.
I write to you today not to complain about the state of our political system. I'm sure every generation when they're my age feels like their world's falling apart and great things were only accomplished in some long-forgotten era of political triumph. I could probably make a case for an ailing nation in every decade. What I want to remind you of today is the importance of the people. While practically we can do little, our voice can still shift America's attitude.
What I want to ask is this: please, know your politicians and what they're up to. You don't have to understand the science of tactical manipulation to know when someone's not being forthcoming. However, if you let information only travel to you from the general public or propoganda, you deserve not to have an opinion. Please, don't accept the level of ignorance, inadequacy, and iniquity that's making its way into our seats of power. If someone is as imbecilic as Palin or Trump or as personally dubious as Edwards or Spitzer, don't stand for it. Our politicians SHOULD be held to higher standards of conduct and pedanticalness. Finally, please be courteous to your fellow citizens.
Dissatisfaction with the government crosses party lines. I suppose that's why people are especially obsessed with credulous conspiracies right now. They want the bad to have a source. The thing disuniting us as a people is where we apportion the blame. I posit to you that some of our current circumstances are driven by political forces beyond anyone's control. Some of them are caused by past failures in leadership. And some of them are caused by our unwillingness to compromise and make educated decisions as a people and as a nation. If we, the people, all promote an attitude of unity and intellectual perserverance in the face of hard times, our politicians may follow. If we ignore the problems most of the time, throw wild accusations across the room, and remain mostly misinformed, we give our leaders license to do so as well.
The Founding Fathers didn't give us freedom and democracy lightly. Originally, only land-owning, educated, white men could vote. Obviously we know now that race, class, and gender have little bearing on a person's competency, but what then becomes the great equalizer is knowledge or lack thereof. So please, don't squander your amazing right and don't poison the American image with more misplaced anger. Follow some news, talk with friends, talk with people with opposing views, be a good citizen and maybe the next generation can tell better stories of their political system.
No comments:
Post a Comment