Last night twitter was abuzz about the passing of the healthcare bill through the House of Representatives. I was celebrating, although many were angry. In the midst of a some of the passionate tweets were a few that went something like this “They’re saying this is the will of the people, but nobody asked me” or “No one polled me to ask my opinion, so how do they know what I think?”
These tweets irked me a bit, as do the grocery store line conversations I hear regularly that often go something like this, “Well, politicians are all crooks anyway, so why should I bother voting?” or “Our budget is in crisis, but those politicians will give themselves a raise soon enough” or “Those (insert either political party) are (insert expletive)” or “I can’t stand politics, so I just don’t get involved.”
Here’s the thing: The US Census Bureau says that there are currently 308,917,121 people in the United States. When you are a part of a diverse collective of people such as this, you can not sit around waiting for someone to come ask you personally what you think about the health care bill. Our political process does not work that way. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have the opportunity to voice your opinion. It does mean that you can be proactive about voicing your views in a constructive way.
People can sit around and whine and complain about the process all they want. They can call it broken. They can seethe in frustration and let their anger simmer. They can call politicians dirty names and find ways to justify not voting. They can call voting for either candidate choosing “the lesser of two evils.” They can refuse to fill out their census form. And for all the good this will do, they might as well do nothing. In fact, it might be better for them to say nothing, so their attitude doesn’t poison those around them.
There is another option. It’s called participating, speaking up, and becoming a part of the process. If you want to be heard, here are some ways you can speak up within our system:
Run for office. You don’t have to have high political aspirations. Join the school board.
Join organizations that work collectively to support your point of view. This can mean doing as little as donating or being part of an email campaign and can mean as much as starting an organization yourself.
Vote in the primaries and the general elections. Even the ones for smaller office.
Attend community and town hall meetings. Ask questions. Show your representatives that you are engaged in the process and paying attention to how they are representing you.
Know who your representative are and communicate with them. Call, email, or write to them about issues that are important to you. I have received personal letters and emails several times. Even when the response is, “I don’t agree with you, and here’s why…”, I feel good about speaking up.
If your elected official is not the person you voted for, don’t give up. They represent you. Contact them to let them know where you stand on issues. Thank them when they make a choice you support.
Educate yourself on the issues. You don’t have to be political or argue with people or even talk politics to be knowledgeable.
Write letters to the editor of local and national publications. I have done this several times. It works. They do get published.
Stay positive. I struggled with this during the Bush years and it wasn’t very productive. Don’t give up on the process, even when things don’t go the way you’d hoped.
Be an example of participating in the process and encourage others (even those who disagree with you) to do the same.
Show respect for those whose views differ from your own. We don’t have to be extremists or to support all that one political party does.
Remember that there will always be people and organizations passionate enough about an issue to speak up. They don’t wait to be asked. They commit the time and energy it takes to make their voices heard. You and I can be one of them.
I say AMEN to this post. Thank you for writing this! I often feel the same frustrations when listening to people whine and complain about government at all levels.
There are many ways to make your voice heard. If you don’t try to make it heard, you are to blame, not your elected official.
I completely agree. Taking out your frustration in a facebook status update is not participating in the process or helping your cause!
Awesome post, and I absolutely agree. Instead of sitting around complaining, do something.
And yes, like you, I was cheering last night.
I have so much to say about this and kept my mouth shut because I don’t really like to argue politics.
What irks me is that EVERYONE knew this was coming. Health care was one of the Democrats’ major platforms that they ran on in 2008 and WE THE PEOPLE (you know the majority) voted them into office. So basically, this is what the people wanted.
THEY DID ASK US. This is why we vote for our representatives. Just because people that are complaining were not the majority, does not mean that they did not have a say. Their opinion were just not the popular one. This is the beauty of a DEMOCRACY! This is what our country was founded on!
Democrats were overwhelmingly voted into office in 2008 and they are doing what they promised to do. The economy is slowly recovering but it’s going to take more than 2 years to recover from the 8 that Dubya put this country through.
While I don’t agree with everything the president and our representatives are doing, they are doing what they believe is right for this country. Of course I’m not going to support EVERYTHING someone does. That is what makes us human. BUT as a nation we overwhelmingly voted these people into office.
What is funny is in 20 years, when our kids are adults, they are not going to believe how much we had to pay for health care. For them it is going to be a crazy notion that the insurance companies wanted billions of dollars to insure people and then got to pick which procedures are deemed “medically necessary” or which ones they would cover.
The United States is one of the FEW wealthy nations that does not provide health care to their citizens. It seems that everyone but Americans think health care is a right and not a privilege. Tell a mom who’s kid is very ill and she cannot afford treatment, that health care is a privilege. Tell a daughter who’s mom is dying and it’s bleeding her and her family dry that health care is a privilege. I dare you!
I’ll tell you what. I voted for Obama and I voted for my Democrat representative and I am so happy this bill is going to be signed today. So FREAKIN happy.
I vote and I email my congressman, John Hall and my senators Schumer and Hildebrand and I get form letter responses, but I keep doing it.
And I rant and rave sometimes on a blog.
you’re right, people have to get involved.
Great post! It can get frustrating for me as a conservative in Washington because despite being well informed, voting every election, writing my representatives and even running for election, I rarely feel my voice is heard. Often the reply from representatives is a form letter that is obviously not related to my concerns. Nevertheless, it is still important to try and not give up. And you’re right…if you don’t vote you don’t get to whine =)
Bravo, Mindy! Well said (written)! I couldn’t have said it better myself. People need to get off their butts and DO something proactive if they’re upset. But most people don’t bother. So they have no right to be bitter…