I may have told you about my going back to college a year or so and getting into an argument with a liberal women’s history professor. I lost since she gave me a ‘c’ for the course. My objection to her teaching was the fact that in her opinion, the birth control pill was the greatest advancement in the history of women. It allowed women to have free sex, anytime and with anyone they choose. I objected. As I said, I lost.
This leads me to this weeks discussion. My mother didn’t work when I was growing up in the fifties and sixties. She stayed at home, took care of the house, cooked the meals and as far as I knew stayed busy all of the time. I can’t recall her ever complaining about her role as a homemaker. That seemed to change sometimes in the late fifties and sixties when women were entering the workplace and their money was being used for college, vacations and second homes. In essence, this second income was being used for things you didn’t really need or that were necessary to live.
But all of this has changed in a little over forty years, hasn’t it’Now the majority of women in a marriage work away from home and not for luxury items but for survival of the family. The end result is that both working members of the family, husband and wife head out early in the mornings and come home late in the evening… too tired to do anything but eat a quick meal and watch a couple of hours of mindless television. They end up paying huge amounts of their combined salaries for day care and after school programs and then try to squeeze in some so-called quality time on the weekends.
Monday morning is Groundhog Day and it starts all over again.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing those who are living in this mode, but what I’m pointing out is that as tired as everyone is while working this routine, they are simply too exhausted to get down into the nitty gritty of politics and the impact of the governments actions on their lives. The result is a form of national apathy which leaves decision making on major elections to be made on the basis of what is heard on well constructed sound bites contrived by a liberal media. It takes time and energy to stay informed. Both of which a lot of people in our country do not have much of or cannot spare.
This leads to votes being cast for unqualified and inept candidates or support for programs without complete knowledge of what they are and what they will (or hope to) accomplish. The result in all of this is a gradual bit by bit erosion of our personal freedoms and our rights.
Like the domino effect, this gradual erosion leads to further dismay and apathetic attitudes as our combined citizenry starts to believe they are impotent when it comes to having an effect upon the national political base.
Nothing can be farther from the truth. We are not dead, yet. We still have values in this country. We can fight back. We still vote and we can still sway the polls with our opinions. We do not have to lie down and quit.
The majority of our elected officials are mainly concerned with what’
You know the answer……re-election.
From the moment they get elected they start looking ahead to the next time their election comes up. It is a self eating frenzy. You and I have the power to influence those officials with our cards, letters, faxes and e-mail and most of all…our mouths. Our youngest son, who is living with us for a few months until he gets married, did not share our passion for the political situation in this country…..until he moved in with us and started hearing about what is happening at this moment. Now, he is planning on participating in a march on April 15th and is eager to discuss events of the day.
If you don’t think the politicians are concerned, then try sending a fax out to some of them after normal business hours or on the weekend. It won’t go through. Why’Because they turn them off so they don’t have to walk in the next day and find a flood of complaints from their constituents. Don’t quit, keep on sending them…keep on calling them….don’t believe all you read and hear on the radio or television…..verify, verify, verify….and then verify again……the old ‘measure twice, cut once’… adage still holds true….
Oliver Hazard (love that middle name) Perry…who I’m sure is a distant relative of mine…once used the motto of “Don’t Give Up The Ship” to motivate his men at the battle Lake Erie in 1813. I suggest we do the same in 2009.