The sad fact is that it is very difficult for an individual citizen to accomplish much in the form of government reform. There is power in numbers, and even more power in who you know.
Much of the (albeit relatively small) amount of reform in which I have tried to play an activist role occurred as a result of my getting to know people in leadership positions on higher levels than mine, and being able to have their ear on occasion in order to plant a seed and request that they do the same.
Little or nothing is accomplished by petitioning or writing. A face-to-face meeting with a decision-maker is a necessity, and, if you yourself cannot arrange one (which is usually the case), you need to get the ear of someone who can (i.e., a local or state official who may have higher connections and who supports your cause).
A great deal can be accomplished by attending public meetings, en masse. The more reasonable, well-spoken people you can bring to a local public meeting the more your views will be heard. And petitions are virtually worthless unless delivered in person and explained in a public setting.
An example of what can be done through passionate grassroots efforts was the repeal of our county’s Personal Property Tax back in the 70s. This tax was an annual tax on one's investments – not the interest and dividends, but the actual principal of those investments.
Many in our township, and eventually our county, spent years writing passionate letters to the editors of our local newspapers expressing outrage at the concept of this tax. The same was done all over the state. Even people who generally paid little attention to 'politics' jumped on this anti-tax bandwagon. Petitions were delivered to the state capital, and eventually a lawsuit was filed, asserting that the tax was unconstitutional on several grounds. The lawsuit was successful and the tax was removed from the books.
A short story about one of my more interesting 'activist' moments:
Back in 1999, my two sisters and I drove to Washington in order to picket outside of the senate chambers. It was on the day that the senate was deliberating as to whether to convict Bill Clinton after the house had impeached him for perjury and obstruction of justice. The three of us were outraged that Arlen Specter appeared to be coming down on the side of non-conviction.
As we were walking back and forth with our pro-conviction signs, the proceedings ended, Patrick Leahy (D-VT) came out and was immediately approached by a reporter and camera crew from ABC news. He began spouting all kinds of untrue defenses of the president, at which point my sisters and I yelled over, ‘That’s not true! Why don’t you tell the American people the truth!’
The reporter turned to us and put her finger to her lips to shut us up, but, as he continued to lie, we continued to demand that he tell the truth – at which point a Capitol policeman, who had been standing across the street, came over, put his face to within 6" of mine and said, 'You need to stop this or the three of you will be coming downtown with me.'
I responded, 'This is a public sidewalk and we have as much right as the senator does to express our opinions here.' He repeated his warning, and out of the corner of my eye I saw one of my sisters shaking her head as if to say, 'I don’t want to spend the night in jail' (not that that would probably have happened), so we backed down and continued to simply voice our opinion in a less confrontational way.
That was one of the first real experiences that taught me that the Orwellian observation that 'some animals are more equal than others' is beginning to ring true in modern America. |
