WE THE PEEPS 1

Hutch Dubosque, author

 What to bring with you on New Year’s Day?                                      12/9/2020

“Take what you can – all you can carry,

 Take what you can – leave the rest behind”  

                         Tom Petty

 What might be some of the things we can leave behind as we venture into another year?

The small butt-biting things a lot us of deem as baggage can be easily collected and left behind. They are in the past and do not need to rent space in your heart or your brain. You might be able to find a little cubby-hole to stash them in the deep recesses of your brain.

Restoring full faith in our brand of democracy is the only item I’m carrying into the new year. It feels as if our Nation’s form of governance has been seriously degrading since the late 1960’s and the Vietnam War. I can recall outgoing President Eisenhower, in 1956,  telling all of us to be very wary of the Military-Industrial Complex. We did not heed his warning and, fifty years later, we find our Country in chaos, turmoil, split in two and still fighting a war. And, we are still ruled by the “Titans of Industry”.

The ancient Romans had a military strategy of divide and conquer. Is that what is happening today in the United States of America? Without an exact idea of the force, or forces, behind the situation we find ourselves in, the citizens – ALL THE CITIZENS – of this Country will hopefully take our failing democracy seriously, and pitch in to change the things we can. A strategy of this magnitude has many moving parts. So, where to start?

How about concentrating on your local politics to start. Your elected officials work for you and are paid by you. Too many folks don’t realize the power they have, and it seems that politicians don’t want you to find out. I know we’ve been told a thousand times that communication is absolutely what needs to happen for all of us. We are at a point where we could seriously toss out our differences; political, or anything that seems to divide us. We all want the same thing: a Nation of fifty States that reflects our love of democracy and our lasting Constitution. The alternative is not going to be a pretty picture for us, our children, our grandchildren, and the generations after them.

Starting at the Town, County, and State levels: phone calls, emails, and letters go along way and are actually read by the Legislators and Senior Staff. The local politicians are tuned into the communities they live in. One of them may even be your neighbor. We can then go after bigger fish at the Federal level, after the locals have heard our arguments and start truly representing us. We have our elected U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators living on our dime, also. They are our employees and we are not subservient to any of them. Letters, emails, and phone calls matter at this level, also.  Of course, the ballot box is an excellent way to display our power. Please start using it, if you haven’t already. Don’t go telling me your vote doesn’t count!

In Washington DC, legislation is made that effects everyone in the Country. If our democratic republic is to survive another 243 years, every citizen, from 10 – 100 years old, should be paying attention and be a participant in body politic at all levels.

This is not a heavy lift. It can be done. We owe it to ourselves and to those to whom we will pass the torch.