Jan 04 2009
Where does our “right” to particpate come from?
Where does our right to participate in the political process come from?
We can trace it back to the declaration of Independence, where all men were created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain, unalienable rights.
These rights make a person a person in the eyes of the political process of this country. Women have been people, in this sense, for less than 100 years. Even African-Americans have had the vote longer than us (but it took a while for the Civil Rights Amendments to be added). But land-owning white men have been people for a long time - since the begining of the country.
Don’t you think that people have fought these battles for a reason?
If I could, I would meet Abigail Adams. She told her husband, in a letter: “Be kinder to the Ladies then the ones who came before you. For if the Ladies are not included in your laws, then we shall rise up and revolt against the laws in which we have no piece or representation.” (or something like that).
If she was fighting for our right to vote way back then, don’t you think we might owe something to the fighters? We might owe them the use of our brains in the political process, and make use of our right to vote.
I put this out there now because the elections are over (for the time being). People seem to have stopped caring about the political process as anything but something “those people” in the legislatures around the country deal with. No one is looking at who we elected to make sure they do a good job. People aren’t learning about the issues.
But we owe people who fought for us (especially people like MLK and Abigail Adams) our due diligence as members of the people. Without our consent, the government cannot govern, for in America the government governs with the consent of the governed.
When we sit still, don’t ask questions, and are apathetic…then we implicitly give our consent. And we deserve what we get.
So pick something you are interested in, and learn a little, then write a little and talk a little. We will get to a more politically involved country by little steps.
PARTICIPATE!!
