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TIMOTHY HAVENER
Mill Hall
Someone recently challenged me by stating that I was rather good at pointing out the problems we face, but didn't offer any solutions. Despite the irony of being given another problem with no solution this response holds within it the answer to its own supposition: We are the solution; each and every one of us.
Whether it's health care, jobs, gerrymandering, or the systemic corruption all around us one could look through an insurmountable pile of suggestions to solve each of the problems we face. However, if you step back and look at the whole panorama a common string weaves through our democracy sealing tight the lips of lady liberty with gilded thread.
Underlying our struggle to be heard by our elected representatives is an undeniable truth that our voices are muffled by the sound of those who speak with larger bank accounts. Lobbyists and the billionaires they represent are holding our government hostage. This is why when we the people speak with one voice across party lines about policies like net neutrality we are ignored and cast aside for mega-corporations such as Comcast or Verizon. We cannot hope to make our votes count when the entire system is so painfully rigged against us.
I was challenged to write a letter on gerrymandering, which is a deeply troubling problem, but the more I sat and tried to think of words to offer the more I came back to this central nexus of the cancer eating our democracy alive as we scream at deaf ears in Congress.
Until money is removed from politics no issue will matter. Until those we elect work for us instead of their donors, voting is the helpless exercise of kicking the chair you are tied to with a gag in your mouth and a gun to your head.
There are two ways we can deal with this. One is to make sure we nominate and elect representatives who refuse to take corporate cash or operate Super PACS.
Another more permanent solution is to advocate for a constitutional amendment to reverse the disastrous Citizen's United decision by the Supreme Court and turn the election process into a publicly funded and truly democratic process. A group of citizen and journalist activists have started a movement to use the Super PAC strategy against the wealthy who abuse it to undermine free and fair elections. They have started a people's Super PAC called WOLF PAC and have already ratified what would be the 28th amendment in 5 state legislatures with more to come.
Take back your government. Until we have our voice, we have nothing. Join WOLF PAC or get more information at www.wolf-pac.com.