The last time I got together with a group of friends, I couldn’t help but wince at our topics of conversation. We had gone from potty training stories and our children’s food preferences to an array of celebrity gossip and TV show reviews. Now I like to swap opinions as much as the next gal, but on this particular night I couldn’t help but think that we should be swapping opinions on a much more taboo subject, politics. At least half of the ladies at our table had been severely effected by this recession through the loss of a job or a house or both. Yet no one dared, or maybe even cared, to speak a word about how it happened or how we could prevent it from happening to the other half of us.
We are nearing the height(hopefully) of one of the worst economic experiences our country has ever faced. Things are being done and said almost everyday in DC that warrant front page news coverage. But those headlines are being crowded out in newspapers, evening news programs and internet news sites by breaking news on Michael Jackson’s memorial debates and custody battles, OctoMom’s latest mishap or Jon Gosselin’s newest fling. Now I will admit that these stories have a place, but that place is not on the front page of the LA Times or the opener for the 10 o’clock news. I think that the media has a certain level of responsibility to inform the uniformed and maybe even shove it in our faces until we get it. Right now the entertainment bits belong in the entertainment section, the sports news belongs in the sports section and the decisions being made that change our lives and the lives of our children belong in section A.
I can’t put all of the blame on the media. After all they are just giving us what we want. The sad truth is that most of us would rather read the fluff than face the what is going around us. Who wants to hear about another failed stimulus plan that just tacked on more zeros to the end of what their toddler will eventually owe in taxes? But as parents(or even future parents) and citizens of this country, we are obligated to stay informed and active in the decisions that shape where it will be 20 years. I am not writing this to tell you who or what to believe. I am pretty vocal in my political opinions, but I am not saying that those need to be your opinions. I am simply asking you to have an opinion and voice it. Be it to the left, to the right or down the middle. We have been shamed into thinking that political opinions should be tucked away like dirty little secrets. But that mentality is keeping us from informing each other about what is going on. Seek out all of the information that you can (even if you have to look on the back page of the world new section) and get involved. Write letters to your representatives if you don’t like what your reading. And if those reps continue to fail you, keep that in mind next fall in the voting booth. It is time that we hold our elected officials accountable for their words and their actions. And to do that we must keep tabs on what they are saying and doing. Otherwise we will end yet another presidential term looking at each other and asking, “When did all of this happen?”
Comments
No comments.