[Prudence]

Man that had been fermenting for awhile. I wish I had other fantabulous places to post that, but alas, y'all on the LoT are pretty much it. It's probably too vitriolic for my local paper.

I just....I care. You know? We're taught this ideal in high school civics and then we grow up to discover that the dominoes fall one by one to the increasing power of corporations. Are corporations evil? Corporations should be neutral. They're not people. But they're the primary influence. Regular people don't carry out their civic duty and thus relinquish their power to the few.

Duty. It's a duty to vote. It's the responsibility that comes with living here. It's part of what makes this work. We crow over purple thumbs on the news -- success! -- but can't be bothered to take half an hour and vote. Hell, now they mail ballots to your house. Could it get easier? You don't even have to get in your car, remember where your polling place is, and wait in line -- much less worry about dodging snipers and car bombs. Sometimes you even have choices! That's right, you get to make your own choice, not check the one box given. You can even write in candidates! Yes, you can literally vote for whomever you want for political office.

But do we? It's just a local levy, we say. It's just a primary. What difference does my vote make? And then....

And then we have people who don't actually represent us. Then we don't respect our politicians. We call them crooks and theives....and then we re-elect them! Lesser of the evils? Name recognition? Or maybe this entire country has changed its mind and I'm the odd one out?

And this all means something to me. I'm thinking about starting a family. I'm wondering if it's time for me to engage in that most basic of human instincts and I realize I have a choice to make. I potentially have the opportunity to choose where my child is born -- and where that child where be a citizen. I get to choose my nest and dammit, I want that nest to be as close to that high school civics ideal as mere mortals can achieve.

I want a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The people. Each and every voice polled and counted to select those who will represent our interests at the national level. I want to feel like I've done my part to contribute to the national debate. I might not always be in the majority, but over all floats this magical document, written by men as flawed as any of the rest of us, that helps ensure the minority is never utterly squleched by a majority, that protects the rights of the popular and the unpopular alike.

And I don't want it to become just another museum relic. Some of us already suspect that the politicians in the legislative and executive branches might not consider us regular folk their primary constituency. But the judicial branch? That was special. You didn't have to have a war chest or adhere to the party platform.

And I'm afraid that will change. I'm afraid we'll collectively abdicate our power to direct our representation and DC will finally be nothing more than a high stakes club I'll never be big enough to enter. I'm afraid that the Constitution is like a fairy -- and if we stop believing it will die. I want to clap my hands and shout "I DO BELIEVE!"

And now I'm just rambling. I don't know why I care now, at this stage of my life. I'm really tired and I'm stressed from overloads at work and school and I just don't even know. I don't know where we're going. It's not a living breathing document. It's a document. We do the living and breathing and we give it life. And I'm afraid that we'll underestimate its importance and let it die.

I totally need to shut up and go to bed now.