July 7, 2006
by Steve Osborn

HEY you! Yes, you! Congress persons and Senators. The last I heard, you were supposed to be representing us, We the People who elected you. To represent us properly, you should be listening to our wants and needs. You should be requesting instructions from the electorate, We the People, as it says in the Constitution of the United States.

We all know about lobbyists and special interests. They are the guys with the cash and trips and gifts of land, cars, houses, etc. We know you listen to them. When they say "Speak," you bark!  When they say, "Fetch!," you bring them tax breaks, no-bid contracts, huge barrels of pork, oil giveaways, and military contracts.  All at the expense of We the People.

Well, We the People have formed our own action groups to monitor what is going on in the government. Groups like Move On, Free Press, Common Cause, NRDC, AFSC, Veterans for America, Pro Choice America and many others. These watchdogs monitor what is going on and keep us informed. When a vital issue is coming up for a vote in the Senate or the House, we are informed. They run petition sites for us to sign and edit so you can get input from We the People, so you the representatives will have some direction.

We know that your receive hundreds of thousands of signatures, many faxes, phone calls and letters. We know this because once in a while, you vote for the people's interests rather than the lobbyists. We the People have even started to feel good about some of our representatives, but apparently you representatives have been very uncomfortable receiving directions from us. Many of us who take the time to e-mail you directly find that you are so insulated that you will only receive information from constituents. This sounds reasonable until someone is trying to get information to a committee member on some issue and gets the form response.

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Apparently you have figured out a way to eliminate input from us. We have heard that you now classify the petitions and letters you receive through our grass roots organizations such as those listed above as spam and just delete it. How simple! You can just delete the concerns of hundreds of thousands of constituents by a simple keystroke. Viola! Their opinions vanish and you can go back to listening to the monied lobbyists.

Well, representatives take notice! "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union," to promote responsible representation, eliminate graft and corruption from the lowest to the highest levels, and return of the Constitution of the United States of America and the Bill of Rights, intact and functioning to the halls of government, may well vote you out of office and elect those who truly want to represent the people of the United States.

So, this is formal notice. Shape up and represent us, or be ready to ship out. We've had it!

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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.