National Responsibility

While standing on the street corner today asking everyone who passed if they could spare a minute to support gay rights I got the impression that very few people were genuinely conscious of their responsibility as citizens of a democratic nation to participate in their government. Those of us who simply go to work and let everything else pass by without making an effort to get involved are enjoying rights and privileges that are the result of many tireless efforts. The History of our nation should be something we utilize to build a better Future. As individuals it is our responsibility to take action in our government. Whether we like it or not that is how a government for and by the people works. The many people who pass by and say that they support something then do nothing are simply giving up their rights to participate in government. If you are giving away your rights there will always be someone willing to take them, and never anyone to represent you.

Originally I started this blog simply to vent random thoughts, an angle I choose after sampling a few blogs , but now i think I will focus more on practical reality, the situations and day to day choices that represent my life.
Lately my life has been somewhat hectic. After moving to Baltimore with my Girlfriend K.C. I took a job as a canvasser for an organization that raises money and awareness for non-profit organizations, the Fund For the Public Interests. The Human Rights Campaign, Private Interests Research Groups, and Environment America seem to be the primary utilizers of the Fund For the Public Interest's organizing expertise. I benefit from a very direct involvement in some of the more compelling campaigns out there (i.e. Clean Energy, LGBT Rights, and curtailing the lobbying influence of major Private Interests such as Big oil and the Tobacco companies on our government, aka corruption).
Unfortunately I suffer from a very modest non-profit salary and often find myself worn down at the end of the day. In trying to raise support and funds for "noble" causes I have found some very rewarding interactions with people who truly care and are willing to put whatever they have behind them. Such people always make my day and they have too because the majority of the people I encounter are willing to put forth any excuse to avoid doing anything. No worries though it is the persistent people who will eventually carry the day. They are the ones willing to stop in the rain, heat, wind, on their way to work, class or etc. to make genuine efforts to contribute to positive goals or at least learn what is going on. I am confident that it is these people who will eventually be responsible for constructing our future while those who do nothing or very little will be left only to wonder how things came to be the way they are.
Perhaps those who passed by opportunities to do things were simply having hard days. I for instance did not go to work today opting instead to go to the junkyard and find a replacement drivers side window for my car. Yesterday someone broke into it, but luckily I don't have much of value to take. Had someone asked me to contribute to a perfectly good cause, even one I have passion for, I would have been hesitant. Losing a day at work and spending time and money in a junkyard soaked to the bone by freezing rain tempered my zeal for nearly everything. spending my last couple bucks on coffee and using my time to drink was all I was up for. Tomorrow, however, I will do more; raising money for HRC's work against discrimination and writing grants to help get health care to immigrants are on the agenda.

Pay Ten Bucks for the Sunday Paper?

People share their views and comment on their lives and interests in blogs. They are unlikely to have editors or fact checkers reviewing their work, and there is no garauntee anyone will see them. It all sounds very unprofessional, when you consider bloggers are also unlikely to be getting paid. This, however is why I have taken an interest in blogs. With only their interests to spurr them on bloggers may be unlikely candidates for intervention by other interests. Journalism, has lost its luster as something that can carry the world to readers eyes. It is a systemized, channelled, and controlled form of media. No publications can afford to print without first considering the effect on their sponsers. Initially newspapers had it in their best interest to produce the most telling and provocative news because the more they did the larger their circulation was, and advertisers had to get on board if they wanted to reach people. What happened to make advertising the primary component of running a solvent paper? News and information quality are no longer what newsrooms run on. They deliver a set program that is followed religiously. Its consistent, and typically worthless. Big issues like explaining to Americans a realistic picture of where they are in the world economically, socially, scientifically, or govermentally are ignored. These subjects require attention and long term analysis and so should be relegated to the two paragraph blurb on sec D page 22. Obviously its more interesting to talk for ten minutes on a newscast about somebody winning the lottery then it is to mention what is going to happen to tens of thousands of peoples lives due to clauses in nearly any Farm Bill, but at some point poeple will have to get interested. That point will be when it is to late and it costs ten bucks to pay for a newspaper. When it is reached premium information will be worth ten bucks. It already is. If I could pay ten dollars for a no frills serious publication that sought the whole truth, the sponsors be damned, I would.
Who else then will be capable of reading the said ten dollar paper?
Most of us are accustomed to having our information pre-chewed and partially digested. Reading between the lines is for the crossword section. Currently the only people capable of paying seventy bucks a week for genuine information have other venues. They tend to be retailers and advertisers purchasing your information so they can better reach you in whatever publication they use. This information is then fitted to slide neatly down your throat. No need to chew it over. It will take people sliding down the slippery slope of poverty until even the fairly well educated professionals are in trouble before the majority of people are willing to relearn how they learn. Learn, in fact, how to learn.
How would you learn?
Could you teach?

At some point it reaches that point

Reality is not something easily questioned by people who have what they need available to them. It is, however, such people who have the time and energy to create and push for their perceptions of reality. Others can then be affected and drawn into their reality. Too many are left out; those too poor, too overworked, too close to reality people are the only ones who actually live in reality. They tend to produce everything except clear examples of their realities because at some point it reaches that point where they have to choose between working to death and starving to death. Reality is not something they have to question the answers are already evident.