They Did What !

Thinking about the recent frenzy of political calls, I wonder which comes first – their right to free speech or my right to privacy. During the last few weeks before the election, at all hours of the day and into the evening, I hung up on computerized versions of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Clinton, Hilary Clinton, Al Gore, Bruce McPherson, and other notables. I also opted out of calls from various real people who wanted me to take a survey, or tell them how I was going to vote or sundry other questions all of which I found invasive of my privacy and intrusive on my time.

Why doesn’t the telemarketing no-call list cover these political calls? They are after all trying to sell us something – a candidate, a pro or con stance on a proposition, or a values issue that they are pushing.

First and foremost, the calls are not a good tool for voting decisions. They do not educate, they simply offer an opinion -- one they hope will carry weight because of the caller’s position or celebrity. If they don’t persuade, they can become so annoying that they may actually influence a voter in the opposite direction. Either way, it is a poor method for deciding how to vote. There must be a process that would actually give voters information about the important issues of the day and how the candidates stand on these issues.

What a concept! Helping people to become informed voters! If we become knowledgeable and start paying attention to what our elected officials are doing it would be a whole different ball game. They would actually have to be accountable to us or risk losing their jobs.

And what about us -- are we ready to start taking the governing of our country seriously? Are we willing to spend a little time, pay a little attention, to what is going on outside the confines of our little lives? Sometimes it seems like too much. Just one more “have to do� in a long list of others. We are already too busy and too tired.

But then… what about some of the things going on out there: Our so called thriving economy that has yet to trickle down to the middle class; our young men and women dying in Iraq; the number of people, especially the very young and the elderly who have little or no health insurance and can’t afford needed medications; our education system, inadequate to prepare our children and grandchildren for the global world our government is helping to create; and last but not least, the horrendous federal deficit that just keeps on growing.

Maybe we can’t afford to be too busy and too tired to pay attention. It is clear that somebody needs to do something and after all, we are somebody. So, as the saying goes, if not us, then who, and if not now, then when?