A HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT FOR AMERICA

The president is scheduled to appear before a joint session of congress tonight, according to advanced reports, to make a speech on his new proposed jobs program.  Predictably, many Republican members of congress have already signaled that they will oppose anything he proposes.

Now, isn’t that ridiculous?

Yes, they have advanced information on the gist of his speech.  For all I know, they have a copy of the complete text of his speech.  Just the same, to announce ahead of time that you are against anything he has to propose seems to explain in a nutshell what is wrong with Washington these days.

Both political parties are dead set against voting for or participating in any sort of compromise discussions that may allow the other party to take credit for anything.  Our political leaders (?) have adopted the position: If they are for it, I’m against it.  End of discussion.  The result is statemate. 

To make matters worse, and things in Washington are getting worse by the day, opponents never seem compelled to state what they are for, nor to propose a modification of the program or bill they are against.  And then they wonder why the approval ratings of congress are at a historic low.  They don’t even try to explain themselves anymore; they leave that for the right- or left-wing radio and television pundits – who, of course, are not elected officials and can say anything they want.

WE CAN PUT A STOP TO THIS NONSENSE!

Here is a homework assignment for YOU this evening.  First, every adult should vow to watch the president’s speech tonight, regardless of party or religious affiliations.  Second, and this is the hard part, the part that our congress people are unwilling or unable to do, you must find at least one thing in his speech that you can agree with and one thing that you disagree with.  Third, you must send an email to your congress person indicating those two points.

We won’t all agree on the same point, nor will we all disagree on the same point.  But each of these points, the pro and the con, can be the starting point for your representative in Washington to use as basis for compromise discussions.  And you must acknowledge that there won’t just be a couple of each.  A voter in Nebraska may find one thing to agree with that a voter in New York didn’t even notice, and vice versa.  Collectively we will give our representatives some ideas (from their constituents) to begin discussions for an effective jobs-creation program.  They will have no more excuses for sitting around doing nothing other than sniping at the opposing party’s proposal.

Let us, ordinary, man-on-the-street American, take back control of Washington.  It is not realistic to talk about voting “all the bums” out of office.  It is realistic to talk about several million people putting aside our prejudices long enough to actually listen to the President’s speech tonight and picking out one item on which we agree with him and one on which we disagree.  Then we can get on the Internet and send those two items to our representatives in Washington with the clear instruction that we want THEM to act on our views.  No excuses, no finger pointing, no spin, no media moments in front of the TV camera.  Just get the damn job done and get America back to work – now!