Dear Congress,
First I would like to congratulate each and every one of you for winning your perspective election. While the seat you hold may not be considered the highest seat in the most powerful nation, it is truly a powerful seat none the less.
But I believe you forget who truly holds the highest seat in the land. That honor goes to me, John Q Citizen. For it is I who voted and put you in the seat you hold so dear. I watched your debates and read your stance on the issues. It is I who read your record, if you had one, and voted to put you there. In that regard, you work for me. I do not, sir or madam, work for you. Having said that, do not forget as surely as I voted you in, I can vote you out.
I am sure we can both agree that the Declaration of Independence is a most sacred document among those of us who are truly American. As such I would call your attention to a passage I would like to dwell on for a moment. "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed". I am sure you understand that the writers of this fine document put this in there to remind further generations that the power they hold is only wielded in a manner that the citizenry approves of. In essence, you work for me. And as your employer, I have a few questions I would like answered.
I would like to know how you came to the conclusion that it was ok for the government to give themselves a pay raise. I know of NO job in this nation or anywhere else where the employee decides when and for how much they get a pay raise. How is it at the time of this letter being written, you have an approval rating of less than 10%, yet you feel you deserve a raise or time off? If my boss were only 10% satisfied with me, rest assured I would not be receiving a raise or time off. And I seriously doubt he would be my boss for very long.
Sirs and Madams, it is on my shoulders that the economy rises and falls, not the Congress. Yet Congress feels as if they can pass legislation that they honestly believe will help it along. I challenge you to find three programs that work as they were or are supposed to. Welfare? Abused and in desperate need of a cleaning. Social Security? Going broke and in desperate need of an overhaul. Housing? The lack of oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and pressure from congressional members on banks and lending institutions to give loans to those who couldn't afford them have caused a HUGE problem in the market. Immigration? We are not allowed to stop an invasion, yes invasion, by illegal immigrants because it may harm a birds nesting grounds. The wall may look bad to other nations. It sends the wrong signal.
Since when did we give a tinkers damn what other countries thought about us? For over 100 years countries have hated us, yet they were more than willing to ask for financial help from us. For over 100 years countries have hated us, but our men and women have been willing to lay it all on the alter of sacrifice for the mere chance of extolling freedom and democracy. We have left some of our finest men and women to lie in unmarked graves world wide. Some of them are in countries that to this day curse us and our flag. Were it not for America a large portion on the world might be speaking a different language and singing a different tune.
Congress saw fit to loan out $700,000,000,000 to bail out companies in need. When my business is in dire straits, can I count on a couple million to help me out? I didn't think so. Yet you were more than willing to hand it out when the whole issue was self caused? I didn't want to take on their inability to control themselves or their companies, yet I am expected to happily extend my wallet and its contents to help them out? I own no stock in them. They are not a part of my 401(k). They are not a part of my Roth IRA. So if you won't bail me out if my business flops, if you won't allow me some guarantee that the money I was forced to give them will be returned to me with interest, why would I want my tax dollars to be used for this? This seems to be the very heart of the issue. Giving away money with very little guarantee it will be repaid. I am a business major and that sounds like bad business practices to me.
I work two jobs, go to school and try to raise a happy and healthy family. How do I explain to my children that the country I swore to defend for 20 years of my life is not and will probably not ever be what it once was and what the founding fathers envisioned? That is unless I and my brothers and sisters wake up and take back our nation?
How do I explain that the government is more concerned about a few moose or some bird than they are about allowing oil companies to drill here at home which provides oil to the refineries so we can pay less for gas?
How do I explain that the government is more concerned about transferring $700 BILLION per year to countries that don't like America rather than leave that amount right here at home?
How do I explain to my children that God is not allowed in school whether he is mentioned by name or on a t shirt but we can wear t shirts with other gods mentioned on them? What about the t shirts with other controversial themes other than religion?!
How do I explain that our country was founded by men of principal, men of character and Godly men but now we have all but eliminated God from every day life? How do I explain this has happened because we as a nation have let a few radical anti-Judeo Christian whackos run him out?!
I believe that if the founding fathers were here today they would weep. They would weep at what we as citizens have allowed our country to become. We have allowed the few to rule the many. Decisions are based on who donates to the cause the largest amount of money.
Abraham Lincoln once said "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." He was right.
The economic mess we find ourselves in, the fact that the populous does not trust their elected officials and the reason we feel they disregard our wishes is because I have allowed it. I John Q Citizen take the blame for the sad state of our country. I have allowed politicians to lie to me and then re-elect them. I have allowed them to give away my tax money to people who couldn't handle their finances to begin with. I have allowed my government to sell off my country for money and votes. I have allowed my government to value a bird or a baby seal more than a child. It is my fault and I should hang my head in shame and beg for my children to forgive me. The cost to them will be un-payable unless I stand up, take my lumps and take my country back.
I'm not asking for help and I won't start now. I no longer have faith in my government. What I do have faith in is myself and my ability to struggle through life's adversities and come out the other side stronger and more resilient. My ability to work hard and regardless of what my government may say, succeed. I believe in God. I believe in the wisdom of the ordinary men who sweated out a document so dear and precious to me I would die for those words.
"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter it or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World. "
It is time for a revolution. Not by weapons but by votes. It is time for me, John Q Citizen, to reclaim my birthright handed down by my father and handed to him by his father. An idea and proposition created in the fire that was ignited and flamed on the battlefields at Cowpens, Fort Griswold, Oriskany, Trenton and Yorktown.
I want my country back. I want my government back. I want my government to remember they work for me. I never want them to forget they got in there by my vote and they can get out by my vote. I want you to remember if you work for me, I control your pay raise. You have proven you cannot control the intoxicating effects of the power you have been given. You have not earned the pay raise you seem to so willingly give yourselves. For the lack of progress you seem to make on a yearly basis, how do you justify the vacations you take? Progress is moving forward not taking a vacation at a time when gasoline prices were over $4.00 a gallon. I needed you to be my voice and you were silent. A few stood strong and faced the wind of self importance and they have earned my gratitude and praise. The rest of you have cemented my contempt for the do nothing men and women who "represent" me.
You have proven at least once in the last five years that my voice can and will be heard. When I called you demanding that the immigration bill as proposed not be passed, you listened. And that gives me hope and reinvigorates my soul that change can and will happen if I want it to. I want a country that is ruled by the people and for the people. Not ruled by the elite for the elite. I want you to represent me, John Q Citizen.
A new day is dawning. I wake up every morning promising myself that today I will change what I can. I will not allow my government to hold me down. My voice will cry out from the purple mountains majesty and I will be heard. Washington, you will hear me. At first I will be a feint whisper in the wind. That whisper will become a howl over which you will not even hear yourself think. You will have no choice but to listen to me. John Q Citizen is making a comeback and you had better be prepared to make a change.
Regards,
Average Citizen
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