Are You A GOOD CITIZEN?

I'll read your book. Great words. Bill, Have you ever been a Jaycee? Perhaps spoken at one of their events? You're a dead-ringer, if I ever saw one. -John Coonen, JCI Senator #64413

Challenge is, there are so FEW people who think like you, Deb. Key is, can we get a GOOD NUMBER OF THEM together to move forward on one great idea at a time? We get bogged down by all the negativity, and the imposters. You gotta put on the hard helmet, the shoulder pads and sometimes the iPod and charge ahead.

When I was in the seventh and eight grades, we had "Civics". Unfortunately, virtually everything I learned in Civics turned out to be wrong. Instead, for almost half a century I have been reading and hearing about venality and corruption in public officials (from small-town school boards to the White House), party politics at the expense of necessary laws, backroom deals, mutual backscratching, the lobbying industry, the military-industrial complex (in which I, as a veteran, had some small part) and all the other crap which constitutes the current American political system. I vote because I delude myself into thinking that "this time, it might work", bearing in mind all along Albert Einstein's definition of insanity as performing the same actions over and over, each time expecting a different result. Reformers come, reformers go; nothing is reformed. One crook is ousted only to be replaced by another; "meet the new boss, same as the old boss". When it's one of the opposition who falls, there's some enjoyable Schadenfreude for a while; when it's one of Our Guys, we bitch about unfair tactics or vendettas or whatever (although some of us actually rejoice to see a bad apple thrown out of our own barrel). And so it goes, endlessly. The Constitution that I swore to support and defend is a great document, not perfect but nearly so; have we any hope that it will ever again be a structure on which to build rather than a collection of loopholes to be exploited?


For the greatest political protest song I have ever heard (and by an English band, at that), listen to the Oysterband's "All That Way For This":

"In the middle of a good time,
Truth gave me her icy kiss.
Look around, you must be joking:
All that way, we've come all that way for this."

I just joined this group and am anxious to read this book to "get into the swing" of the group....though I'm not sure anything I have done as a citizen/activist could be deemed great enough for a feature story. I DO have a story of my oldest son and his personal growth class project.....it turned out to be quite the citizenship lesson, moreso than I dare say he ever imagined!

I agree that it starts with one person and can grow. I have read his book and it has helped me take action. I thank the moderator for featuring my story. I do hope more comment and maybe even take part in some way. I leave one month from today and the wheels are in motion. I can not wait to take my first steps towards DC. Thank you again for inspiring me.

Senator Bradley,
I look forward to reading your latest book. I just returned from a journey to Istanbul, Alexandria, Cairo, and several Historic Greek and Roman cities including the UK. What is disconcerting is the Universal loss of respect for the United States in general and the current executive administration in particular. Our leadership in foreign policy matters has fallen to a new low and our dirty laundry most apparent. I have maintained that one remedy to our moral bankruptcy is impeachment. The image of the United States can only be repaired by impeachment of those individuals who are responsible for the false basis for the killing fields of Iraq and the widespread unrest in the Middle East.