I’ve been thinking recently about our current political situation, here in the United States. You hear stories all the time about “President Obama sides with the RIAA when it comes to copyright law”, or “10 more US soldiers died in Iraq today” or “Huge hurricanes expected yet again, likely due to global warming” and everyone reads these articles. They look at them and think “Oh wow, that’s horrible.” but it seems as though no one cares.
I acknowledge that I’m pre-disposed to care about things. I’d like to look at Vietnam, for instance. Yes, a lot of parallels have been drawn between Vietnam and the war in Iraq, and I don’t want to re-iterate the discourse that has already been had. I do however want to say, part of the reason the United States left Vietnam was because the American people were protesting. Obviously there was other stuff involved, but the protest movement had an affect. You will often hear in political discourse the idea of “pulling out of Iraq”. Many seem to think this is a good idea. Yet we haven’t done it, Obama promises to, but it hasn’t happened. Why? I would argue the government doesn’t see it as that pressing of an issue. It’s harsh, because there are obviously people’s lives on the line. We need to make the government know we care about something.
Hurricanes? Same concept. Yes, when An Inconvenient Truth came out, there seemed to be a wave of public awareness around the topic of global warming. Yes, many people have moved away from their SUVs towards either hybird SUVs, or the pretty well known Toyota Prius. Yes this idea of “being green” is prevalent, but only so prevalent so as it convenient to switch. People are starting to use re-usable grocery bags, compact flourescent lightbulbs, etc. etc. However, the majority of the population? Not willing to change their lifestyle enough to have a big impact on petroleum usage and carbon emissions. Obviously hurricanes aren’t completely related to global warming, but the level and intensity of hurricanes that we’ve seen recently can pretty clearly be attributed to climate change. Maybe the public should start showing they care about climate change, or the lives of those people being subjected to the hurricanes (or other natural disasters in other parts of the world, for that matter).
President Obama siding with the RIAA? Yes, granted, not as many people know or care about artists rights in the same way I do, it’s not terribly pressing to many people. That said, it affects many many people. Remember the older woman who never owned a comptuer in her life, but was sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement? I bet she cares a lot about current RIAA policy. Maybe letting Obama’s administration know that the public won’t stand for more RIAA shenanigans would be a good thing?
I know not everyone needs or can care about every topic, that would be difficult. I also acknowledge that not everyone has the same opinion on any one topic. That’s totally fair, that’s part of being human and relating to other humans. I don’t even care if you’re out protesting the completely opposite view of my own (although you’re wrong 
), what I do care about is showing our government that we care. If we sit idlly by, and complain about the way things are going to our neighbors, that never gets back to government (unless you’re lucky enough to live next to 1600 Pennsylvanian Ave., Washington DC). If we as a population become more vocal, more involved, and more willing to change the way we do things to be more in line with our beliefs on a topic, that can only be a good thing. If all the people in cities who drive about 20 mi. every day to work were willing to push for affordable electric cars, we’d be able to cut our carbon emission use as a country by an enormous amount.
I’m not placing blame, instead, I’m more asking anyone and everyone to decide what issues they care about, and do something to help move that issue forward. As a country, we find ourselves running into more and more issues, with the economy, healthcare, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, intellectual property laws, immigration and homeland security policies, and even with some sections of the population, drug policy. If you want the government to change, you’re going to need to do something, instead of just sitting idly by and saying “man, something needs to change”.
