Land of the free, home of the perptually outraged
I've been thinking about the following for a while. Independence Day seemed like the day to finally talk about it.
Recently on Facebook, I posted the clip of Jon Stewart's reaction to the Charleston killings. At the time, in agreement with Stewart I commented, "in America either we're outraged or we're apathetic--we all react--but what we won't be is mobilized to do something significant enough to change the situation. We don't act." A correspondent responded by saying, "I don't actually know what to do. I don't even know what to say other than 'it's horrible' and 'racism kills.'" I completely sympathize with this response. It's hard not to feel helpless in the face of such unreasonable, irrational hate. I felt that way, too. And then I learned about the Confederate flag being flown on state property. That's when I did something: I wrote to the Charleston mayor's office as follows in part.
I've seen on the news that government buildings in town are flying the Confederate flag in the wake of the shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. It may be a complex cultural issue for the city, but to the rest of the nation it signals the kind of tone-deafness that led to the shootings in the first place. I won't be visiting or spending my tourist dollars there until I see an announcement from the city that it won't be flying the Confederate flag again. Will you be removing the flag? Will you make a commitment to not fly it again?
It doesn't change the fact that nine people were murdered in cold blood by a bigot and a terrorist. But it was an effort to change the culture in which such prejudice grew. And while I won't credit my one letter with getting the flag removed, it was a contribution to the chorus of voices calling for same. The pressure made a difference.
That's what I do. I write to state and federal officials and let them know what one citizen is thinking. I actually do it quite often. I've written to the president on a couple of occasions. If some special interest group--the Wilderness Society, for example--is lobbying on some issue I care about and provides a canned letter to send, I try to customize it so it represents my perspective on the issue rather than the organization's. But more often than not, it's just me, responding to an issue or a news story.
Here's the thing: our legislators are supposed to represent us. Whether or not they do that effectively is another argument for another time. But if we don't let them know what we're thinking, then we can't effect change. That's the point of our system: our representatives speak for us--but if we don't tell them what we want them to say, then change doesn't happen. We moan and complain that government sucks, that know-nothings and morons run the House of Representatives, that the country is going to hell in a handbasket. But we don't vote, we don't engage, we don't participate.
I never miss an election. Never. I write my representatives and senators. I speak up. If you don't like what's going on in our country, your greatest act of patriotism isn't to get outraged on Facebook or retweet a tweet on Twitter. It's to write and let officials know how you feel about the things you care about. You want to celebrate American independence and our way of life? Open your mouth. Today, before you go to your picnic, or tonight before you go out to see fireworks, write a letter.
Not sure who your representative is? Find out.
Want to know what committees they're on and how to contact them? There's a directory.
Want to contact your senator? There's a directory for them, too.
No excuses. Get to work.
And happy Independence Day!
Recently on Facebook, I posted the clip of Jon Stewart's reaction to the Charleston killings. At the time, in agreement with Stewart I commented, "in America either we're outraged or we're apathetic--we all react--but what we won't be is mobilized to do something significant enough to change the situation. We don't act." A correspondent responded by saying, "I don't actually know what to do. I don't even know what to say other than 'it's horrible' and 'racism kills.'" I completely sympathize with this response. It's hard not to feel helpless in the face of such unreasonable, irrational hate. I felt that way, too. And then I learned about the Confederate flag being flown on state property. That's when I did something: I wrote to the Charleston mayor's office as follows in part.
I've seen on the news that government buildings in town are flying the Confederate flag in the wake of the shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. It may be a complex cultural issue for the city, but to the rest of the nation it signals the kind of tone-deafness that led to the shootings in the first place. I won't be visiting or spending my tourist dollars there until I see an announcement from the city that it won't be flying the Confederate flag again. Will you be removing the flag? Will you make a commitment to not fly it again?
It doesn't change the fact that nine people were murdered in cold blood by a bigot and a terrorist. But it was an effort to change the culture in which such prejudice grew. And while I won't credit my one letter with getting the flag removed, it was a contribution to the chorus of voices calling for same. The pressure made a difference.
That's what I do. I write to state and federal officials and let them know what one citizen is thinking. I actually do it quite often. I've written to the president on a couple of occasions. If some special interest group--the Wilderness Society, for example--is lobbying on some issue I care about and provides a canned letter to send, I try to customize it so it represents my perspective on the issue rather than the organization's. But more often than not, it's just me, responding to an issue or a news story.
Here's the thing: our legislators are supposed to represent us. Whether or not they do that effectively is another argument for another time. But if we don't let them know what we're thinking, then we can't effect change. That's the point of our system: our representatives speak for us--but if we don't tell them what we want them to say, then change doesn't happen. We moan and complain that government sucks, that know-nothings and morons run the House of Representatives, that the country is going to hell in a handbasket. But we don't vote, we don't engage, we don't participate.
I never miss an election. Never. I write my representatives and senators. I speak up. If you don't like what's going on in our country, your greatest act of patriotism isn't to get outraged on Facebook or retweet a tweet on Twitter. It's to write and let officials know how you feel about the things you care about. You want to celebrate American independence and our way of life? Open your mouth. Today, before you go to your picnic, or tonight before you go out to see fireworks, write a letter.
Not sure who your representative is? Find out.
Want to know what committees they're on and how to contact them? There's a directory.
Want to contact your senator? There's a directory for them, too.
No excuses. Get to work.
And happy Independence Day!