The Ragged Edge Activist Trusts Citizens To Save Government

My view

I’m in my 40s now, past youthful enthusiasm, and I find myself in the midst of a very pragmatic, naked realization that when it comes to changing our political system, our federal government cares more about the corporate and military industrial dollar than it will ever care about the common citizen.

I still vote, even though I don’t trust voting because it is really the electoral college that decides who will be president. And anyway, they are already reporting who the president is before they have even counted my vote here in Colville.

I don’t trust the president or federally elected officials because they are all part of the same cookie cutout. When was the last time a president wrote his own speech? And who is president anyway? Clinton or Bush or Reagan are merely figureheads for the silent, powerful men behind the scenes.

It is difficult to trust our leaders when we vote for changes that never happen, bail out rich corporations and failing banking institutions, fine industrial giants a mere $25,000 a day so they can dump pollution in our oceans with impunity.

And all the while the government falls embarrassingly short of finding real solutions to escalating crime rates and a welfare system that keeps people perpetually stuck by offering no child care or other necessary incentives to rise out of poverty.

Why can’t the wealthiest country in the world offer every citizen a free college education? I know that people will say it just would cost more in taxes, but why can’t we eliminate our dinosaur military industrial complex and free up the money to give people an education so they will be more employable and therefore happier?

Though I have next to zero faith in our government behaving in the best interests of the common citizen, I do have faith in the common citizen. I believe that if individuals become involved on a local and regional level, we can turn America around from the inside out.

In my community I am active in the Upper Columbia Human Rights Coalition. I coordinate and cook for a dinner we hold each year to celebrate and honor diversity. When I was first asked to cook for 300 people, I hesitated because I had never done anything like that before. But I ultimately said yes because I saw it as a challenge to create more of what I wanted in Colville.

My husband and I also organized the new North County barter fair. The profit from the fair is given to different organizations that fight domestic violence, promote healthful living and build our community.

I challenge every one of you to implement your vision through action. A common citizen can sit on the school board and change curriculum, can join the chamber of commerce and affect business and can participate in many levels of local government.

Not many people take these opportunities, but those who do have the very powerful opportunity to shape their environment. Indeed, in time, we could even force Washington, D.C., to respond to common citizens.