It's Time to Boycott Arizona

[dreadgeek]

[quote=DomnNC;238618]

Good for you that you were able to keep your computer and internet access while unemployed, some people can't, for some people that's the first thing that goes because it's NOT a necessity in order to live or to put food on their table, or keep a roof over their kids heads. They can check out classifieds thru their local paper or word of mouth if need be. [ /quote]

The same local paper they can't afford and thus do not have when said paper has information about, oh, a bill that invites to racial profiling.

Lastly, you don't know me so don't presume to accuse me of anything, goal post moving indeed. I'm just speaking up about people who seem to think they are so much better than others because they have an education and choose to be more politically aware than others. I don't go for blanket statements or putting a group of people down because they don't choose to participate in something. Not everyone is an activist and that's OK. You seem to think that those who don't choose to be an activist are less than you or anyone else who chooses to be so. If you don't think that way then perhaps you should read back over some of your postings because it sure does come off that way.

Fascinating. I say that you are goal post moving--something I think can be demonstrated and you accuse me of knowing you. Yet, you believe you can get in my head and tell me what I think about people who are not activists? Well, not even wrong on that score. I have said not a word about being activists. I have said quite a bit about being informed and voting neither of which I would consider activism--I would consider those citizenship. I don't think everyone has to be an activist. I have been an activist and I have had my periods where I was burnt out and didn't do activism.

However, through that time I have tried to be a citizen. We get the government and, by extension, the political structure we deserve. This isn't Iraq under Saddam Hussein nor is it Saudi Arabia under the House of Saud. Until demonstrated otherwise, this is a democratic republic and if it is screwed up then that is because we have allowed it to become so. This country does not belong to Wall Street. It doesn't belong to hedge fund managers. It belongs to ALL of the American people.

Yet pitifully few of the American people vote and thus bail out on the civic life of their nation. Is unemployment high in your area? Does it appear that it's not getting any better? That is, in no small part, because of decisions made by state, local and national governments. Are there homeless people sleeping under bridges? Why? Because, again, decisions made--largely in the area of budget priority--that create the conditions where people cannot afford housing and there are no services that can keep them off the streets. If people don't vote or if they vote in an uninformed fashion then they are as responsible for the condition of the country as every member of Congress, every mayor, every state representative, every governor, every President. If that is not true, then this isn't any kind of free society. As long as we can vote people out of office and they are compelled to relinquish power when we do so, then we have the government we deserve. If we have a government we cannot influence at all then whatever this is, it is not a democratic republic and we must then ask ourselves a different set of questions.

I like to believe that this country is still subject to the rule of law and the will of the voters enough that we can still save our country from, well, us. I would prefer people be informed voters and also give a damn enough about their country and the world they are leaving for their children to be informed about it--and by informed I mean something more substantive than the latest antics of the Kardashians or who is on American Idol.

To be honest, I don't read much of what you say because you interlace so many other things with what you are trying to say, blurring the lines, writing a book and can't seem to get to the point of the matter without losing the audience. Brevity can be your friend.

I want to make it clear here that you made this personal and I'm going to let this slide. I didn't ask for your critique although I always find writing critiques helpful. But you made this personal, not I. You'll probably keep making it personal but to the best of my ability I won't.

You have a point, I understand the point you are making but disagree with it. I don't think citizenship is activism and I think that citizenship involves trying to be informed about what is going on in your city, state, and nation. I think it has consequences whether one does or not. I think that the state of the polity reflects something about the people--if the people run the polity. Look around you, how good of a job do you think We the People have done in the last, oh, quarter century?

Cheers
Aj