What do I doodoo?

Luke brought up a great point... "Is there anyone doing anything about the internet stuff you e-mailed me about? What should I do?"

Well Luke, I'm glad you asked that. It's a hard thing to do. Often times, if you're like me, you feel a sense of helplessness when someone tells you about something infuriating, frustrating, or just downright deplorable in the government. We want to do something about it, but what to do?????

Well, my immediate response to Luke was to call or e-mail his congressmen, his representatives in the government, to voice his opinion. He said, well, nobody does that. And I said, I do.

There are places such as MoveOn.org that will hook you up with your congressmen. Ultimately, it's not very hard for you to find the e-mail addresses and phone numbers for your congressmen.


And of course, we forget the power of protest! There are so many ways to protest... standing outside with a sign, refusing to buy things, hunger strike... We have more power than we realize because we've become somewhat placid, like cattle. We have all of the things we want to be happy in our lives (food, clothes, homes, even cars), so when something in the government, which is not so immediately a part of our lives, goes awry, we feel too distant to do anything about it.

Never forget... Power ultimately lies in the public, not in the individual hands of the few politicians. They have lots of decisionmaking power, but we are the people. We have given them their power, and we are the ones to whom they are responsible. If everyone in America packed up and left, even George W. Bush would find his position to be completely void of meaning and power. If you're not happy about something, tell other people. Maybe they'll be unhappy about it too, and you can both do something about it.