Yes, We Can

Dear Madame L,

Aren't you getting discouraged by the current political atmosphere, in which our elected representatives to government are ignoring our wishes, and the 1% gets richer while the 99% continue to get poorer, while the only protests anyone seems to have thought of (the Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy protests) are turning into messes? 

How can you maintain hope in the future, considering how messed up the present is?

Sincerely,

Depressed

Dear Depressed,

Madame L continues to believe that we CAN make changes that will lead us into a brighter future.

Madame L encourages you to 

---Write to your Member of Congress and Senators from your state, and to your local newspaper opinion page; and call the offices of your representatives to tell whoever answers the phone your opinion;

---Join with like-minded people to visit Congressional and Senatorial offices to tell them in person your views and ask them to represent you; and

---Raise your voice to call for change in every way you can.

Do you want taxes raised on wealthy individuals and corporations, while keeping social safety-net guarantees for the rest of us? YOU ARE NOT ALONE.  Look at these poll results:

Making hundreds of millions of dollars in spending cuts to Medicare and Medicaid through increasing beneficiary costs:

Yes - 29% 

No - 75%

Changing the way in which increases in Social Security benefits are calculated in order to lower program costs and lower future benefits:
Yes - 38% 
No - 56%

Increasing taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations:  
Yes - 66%
No - 31%

Closing tax loopholes and reforming the tax code to make the tax code fairer:  
Yes - 89%
No - 7%

Contact information for members of Congress is available here.

If someone in government who is supposedly representing you is voting against what you want them to do, let them know you disapprove of them and will not vote for them to be re-elected.  Better yet, let them know you'll actively work for them to be voted out in 2012.

For example, Madame L's Member of Congress was elected on a promise to represent the people of her district, but then signed Grover Norquist's no-tax pledge after arriving in Washington, D.C. This has prompted Madame L to write email messages and call that person's local and D.C. offices to protest; and to begin working for the election of a different person to that office.

(Please become active in politics even if your opinions are very different from those of Madame L! Maybe you like the idea of lower taxes for rich people and policies that will result in many more desperate and homeless families. If so, go for it.)

If you want representative government, you have to let the government know what your views are.

Sincerely,

Madame L