If anyone thought that Washington (either side) was working on behalf of the nation, just take a look at the aftermath of Pennsylvania Senator Morino’s withdrawal as the nominee for drug czar. “Nobody knew, they fooled us. I don’t know who contributes to my campaigns,” he stated in his defense.
Democrats and Republicans. Shame! It’s not just that we have a questionable president; we also have a broken Congress, rift with ties to special interests and extreme partisan views—whose members are either ignorant of the details of the bills they pass or, worse, don’t give a damn. And shame on us for not going to the polls and voting; shame on us for not paying attention to whom and what we do vote for. Shame on us for listening only to those who confirm our own world view and abdicating our role as informed citizens.
Most of us agree on the nation’s problems but have different ideas about the solutions. That’s democracy, and it demands open and honest debate to devise answers which don’t further divide our country but bring us together and uplift us all.
In Cambodia, when I helped supervise its first democratic election, 98 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. They traveled through jungles filled with Khmer Rouge guerillas; they crossed fields planted with landmines. They came on foot, by boat, by bicycle. They voted! Fewer than one-fourth of Americans voted in 2016! Really!
Some of the stories in my book The Fourth Moment are about that extrodinary time in Cambodia (1992-93). Check it out on Amazon
Carole J. Garrison 