Saturday, June 13, 2009
GERRY-RIGGED AND GERRY-BUILT GOVERNMENT
BY
MOLLY THE ROBIN
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news where most Americans get their information is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
After flying over your country and studying and reading from public libraries articles and news stories it is abundantly clear that your government through Democrats and Republicans has jerry-rigged and jerry-built for over two two generations a government contraption of programs, agencies and departments that are essentially self-serving with minimal benefit to the majority of the citizenry despite trillions of dollars spent annually.
A classic example is the result of the Congress Online Project Study "E-mail Overload in Congress-Managing a Communications Crisis". Excuse after excuse is cited in the study why members of Congress cannot answer their emails from too many lobbyists sending emails to emails outside their districts. As a bird I could easily devise a system separating emails from individual constituents from everybody else. If members of Congress do not know their jobs, do not know who is their employer or do not care about their constituents the current situation is the result.
A conclusion of the Congress Online Project puts the burden on the citizen, just where it does not belong by stating, "Citizens must recognize that congressional offices are not and cannot be capable of responding electronically to every every American." It is not a question of whether members of Congress can respond electronically to every American, the question is, does every member of Congress have an obligation to answer electronically every individual constituent? Notice how every obligation and responsibility of the U.S. Congress and government in general is often deflected or ignored from checks and balances to responding to constituent emails!
In essence they are incapable of representing their constituents as technology advances and it can be said that they are not adequately representing their constituents. Members of Congress spend trillions of dollars annually, much of it on dubious projects, yet answering their constituent's (citizens and voters) emails are a major problem. Maybe members of Congress and their embedded political parties are the problem by not understanding their jobs through design or ignorance.
How would we birds and animals exist with such an unbalanced and overloaded system of government as yours? It is a beautiful day for flying over the trees and bushes and the blue sky is my canopy.
