This is a little bit of a “once upon a soap box” post, so bear with me…
If you listen in on conversations around American dinner tables of late, you’ll notice a sad trend. People are very quick to complain about our government, but very slow to take action. In fact, people who do take action are viewed as a little strange and outlandish by the folks that are doing all that complaining! Have you ever watched a protest on the television, and shook your head thinking that those folks with the picket signs were a bit weird and should just go home? Well, I admit that I have…but I’ve also stood in those picket lines, and very nearly got arrested for something I believed in. Wanna know what it was? Back in the early 90’s I protested abortion. It wasn’t protesting for a woman’s right to choose, but against third trimester abortions that were not for the health of the woman and baby. I nearly got arrested for sitting blocking the entrance to a medical facility.
I’m still very proud to this day that I stood up for something I believed in…but I’ve grown very complacent and haven’t done a whole lot of protesting in the last few years. I belong to numerous organizations who send me regular emails about concerning bills or laws that are in consideration in our government offices. Sometimes I’ll read about one of these bills and get so fired up and angry. I’ll sit and talk about it with my family over dinner, and I’ll write about it on forums and complain with my peers. Why is it that is so much easier than writing a letter to a congressman or senator? How is it that discussing it over dinner is so much easier than making a phone call?
In the local town not far from my home, we have a nice new spiffy coal fired power plant. It went way over budget, is a horrible eyesore and the noise from it permeates homes for blocks around it. Before this lovely new addition, we were known as a wind power community. We have a huge wind farm, and promote our love for natural energy sources all over the country on billboards and with pamphlets and tourism information. This new power plant has the whole community riled up. We complain, we argue and we mope around angrily about the whole bad deal. You know what though? No one attended a city council meeting before that sucker was approved. No one was there to tell whomever suggested the idea that it was ludicrous. Not one of us did anything to stop it before it got here, and you know what? We have NO RIGHT to complain about it.
People rarely complain about something which they cannot change, or have not had the opportunity to prevent.
Right now, in any community, in nearly every home and in everyone’s mind there are issues that are affecting us that make us feel used, abused and put upon by our own elected officials. There are issues that are making us angry that are changing our country in ways we do not like and laws and bills and decisions that affect the lives of everyone in these United States. I bet you can think of at least one thing that frightens you or makes you angry.
What are you going to do about it?
I’ve grown complacent…we all have. If you are willing to call for pizza, you can make a call to a congressman or senator’s office. If you are willing to attend church or a basketball game or your child’s recital or girl scout meeting, then surely you can attend a city council, school council or county commissioner’s meeting. If you can send a Christmas card, you can write a short letter of concern to a government official who may have the power to make real change.
If you don’t know how to do these things, it is in your power to LEARN.
The Declaration of Independance is a beautiful document. When was the last time you read through it? It’s not very long and the wording is like a beautiful poem that washes through your mind like a spring rain. Here is my very favorite part:
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Contact your state representative
A couple of places to get you started looking for something to complain about 
Gun Control/The Right to Bear Arms and Here
Do some research and find something to take a part in today. VOTE.
We have the ability to make positive change in the world. Everywhere we step, with every breath we take and with every action our minds and bodies have the ability to form.
Besides, some amazing people have gone before you…
Tearing down the Berlin Wall
The End of Segregation
Dr. Martin Luther King
The Million Man March
Tienamen Square
The Vietnam War
Women's Suffrage
