As you know, I work as a home visit hospice nurse on weekends. I love my job and I love seeing and helping my patients. But we have many, many patients and family caregivers on service. And many times, just a few nurses are available. So I remind them that if we do not hear from them, we are left to assume that everything is going okay. Or at least as well as it can be under the circumstances. That the plan of care that we outlined is working. They do have scheduled visits, but these patients have issues on an ongoing basis. So they should not wait for a scheduled visit if they think things are not going well. They need to be the squeaky wheel. They need to call and tell us. And then we can respond and take care of the issue. We cannot call every patient every day and sometimes things change within hours. They really need to keep us informed. That is what we are there for, to respond to their needs. We want them to call. Some say that they do not want to bother us. I remind them that that is what we are there for and our sole purpose is to take care of them. And we do. When we know.
The same logic should hold true for our elected representatives. Whoever they are. They could be the President, a School Board member, a Senator or the small-town Town Clerk. All of them serve one purpose; to respond to the people that they govern. For their entire term.
However, they seem to only want to reach out and listen to us at election time. They offer many promises; they try to be "just like the everyman". They drive trucks and wear jeans and forgo ties to mirror what they see in us. Regular folk. Most times, they are simply pandering for votes. And it is simply a facade. Because once elected, they many times refuse to listen to the very same people they purported to hold in such high regard. So much for being "one of us". Suddenly, they are way above us. Beyond our reach. It shouldn't happen. And the reason that it does happen? Because we allow it to happen.
It seems that we tend to vote for candidates that are in keeping with some of our core beliefs and we assume, many times wrongly, that they will continue to fight for us and do the job they said they would. But as soon as we turn our backs, and they see that we are no longer looking, they start to do what is best for them. And that isn't always in our best interests. And unless they are caught in the eye of the media, we may never know.
Some say, yes, I know. But I do not have the time to call and complain. I am too busy. And it does so little anyway. So why bother.
True, it does seem that way. But small drops fill buckets. If each of us took the 5 minutes that it actually takes to write an email or to call an office, it would add up. One call, yes, they can ignore that. 25 calls or emails, well, it gets their attention. And so on.
I hear a lot of moms complain about a lot things. Things that local government does or what big government doesn't do. Complaining to each other is fine; but the message dies there. So take just one moment before you go to bed and write that email. Most people have iphones or blackberrys so they can do it while stuck in traffic, or while you are sitting at one of the several activities your children are involved in.
I know that we need to focus on our families and our jobs. And we should. And kids come first and we have to feed them and read to them and snuggle with them. All are top priorities. It is all good. But someday those kids will grow up to be young adults. And they will pay more attention to social issues, like we all did when we were in college. And they will look at you and ask, "what did you do about this?" And wouldn't it be nice to say, yes, I called, I emailed, I paid attention.
I think that actively being involved and paying attention to something that is happening in our community, our towns or our country, even if that is simply sending a 5 minute email to an elected official, is a great civics lesson for our kids. And who better to teach this lesson than their own parents. Us. What a great example we would be setting.
I know there are so many issues out there and I know it seems so overwhelming that we all just turn off the TV because we just don't want to see it. We cannot help everyone. But if you notice that something that you have heard is really bothering you, and it is important to you, you should call or write. Many of us make the mistake that someone else will do it. And they usually don't. I often say this to myself, one of my favorite quotes, "If not now, when, if not me, who".
I know that we also witness a lot of crazy, ranting people. I do not advocate that. A simple, polite inquiry is all you need to send. It sends the message that I am out here. I am seeing this. I am paying attention. I don't like this.
They hate that. Trust me.
Right now, I am angry that one man, one man, can hold up important legislation. So I am going out on a limb and calling him out. That would be Senator Richard Shelby from Alabama and the Consumer Protection Bill. But I digress.
Anyway, remember that we women would not even have the right to vote if some other brave women did not go out and make a fuss about it.
They were a squeaky wheel that eventually became a roar that no one could ignore.
And now that we have the right to vote and we should go beyond that and demand the right to be heard.
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