As I was signing the latest CREDO petition, I took advantage of the opportunity to add a personal message. As I was writing my personal message, it occurred to me that my response could also be framed as a petition. It was, after all, addressed directly to our elected legislators and candidates, and it asks a pertinent question that deserves a prompt answer. It’s a petition for a clear and direct answer to a direct question.
I took a break from my writing to watch Countdown (10/6/10), and I heard Keith talk about how we need to spread our message and engage the voters, and that it could happen on a people-to-people level. Rachel also mentioned the same topic. Well, that’s exactly what a grass roots petition drive can do.
The President and the Vice-President have said as much. Everyone agrees that what is needed at this point is some quick way to get the disaffected people to become involved again. A petition is the quickest and easiest way to do this.
A petition can be ubiquitous, yet discrete. A petition is non-threatening. It’s even inviting, welcoming, bonding. It’s a conversation starter. It’s a good way to give a feeling of inclusion to those undecided voters who still don’t know which way they’ll go.
I offer the following petition as a sample, a pump-primer, something to get the ball rolling. Use the sample as it is, or alter it as you wish. Email the link to this article to your local elected legislator. Add your own personal note. Better yet, start your own petition. Get your friends involved. I know this might seem like a duplication of what’s already being done on the internet, but it’s not. It’s the up-close and personal, one-on-one human grassroots element that makes the big difference.
And here’s something else to think about. A petition is the most direct way for an individual citizen to stand up and be counted, to be recognized. It’s better than a poll. I am sick and tired of hearing John Boehner and Mitch McConnell presume to tell you and me “what the American people want.” The American People want straight talk and a fair deal. If we can coax the discouraged members of the Dem base to get back into play, the very large number of signatories will prove that John and Mitch know absolutely nothing of what the American People want.
This American Person wants a straight answer to a simple question.
This is not a trivial matter. We MUST hear an answer from our elected legislators and candidates before the November election.
Ask until you receive.
A PETITION TO OUR ELECTED LEGISLATORS AND CANDIDATES
May I remind you that we are a government of the People, by the People and for the People? The People speak through elected representatives. They speak through you, the elected legislators.
Yet, many among you have consistently advocated for legislation that would adversely affect the People whose best interests you are supposedly representing. Some among you have even blocked legislation that would have helped us, would have lessened our suffering during the recent time of extreme distress and need. If all of you would listen to all of us, instead of acting on behalf of some personal or partisan issue or ideology, our government would work much better than it does now.
We are People, as in “We the People of the United States.” Corporations claim to be People too, but they’re really not. Their personhood is a legal fiction. They come not from a woman’s womb but rather from a meeting in some lawyer’s office. Their personhood comes not from living flesh and blood but from a definition in a legal document. So, it all comes to this question. When you say that you will represent We the People, what kind of people do you mean? What kind of People do you have in mind, the human kind or the legal fiction kind? How do you define the word “person?” In whose interests will you legislate? Will it be in the interests of We the Real, Living, Breathing People of the United States, or will it be in the interests of the fictitious Corporation People? So far, it seems that you have tended to represent the fictitious Corporation People who fund your campaigns, and the lobbyists who push the corporate agenda.
That’s not the way our representative government is supposed to work. May I remind you all that your primary duty, your sworn duty, is to honestly and faithfully represent, and work in the best interest of the living, breathing, feeling, bleeding, warm bodies that make up We the People?
We the American People have a right to know, to hear a clear and direct response from each of you. Who do you really intend to represent? Please respond.
daddeeo
A Lobby of One