Letter to the editor

Columnist misses political point

Is this really the first time that the “naivety of foreign customs” of others is revealed? I guess I’m just a fool, because I recognized this naivety far before “Borat” was announced.

Ben Jipson decided to make a jump from a popular comedy to newfound control for the Democrats. This makes me wonder the article’s intent. To assume that the power shift will automatically be positive for this country is pretentious and arrogant. Don’t assume results. It could easily be labeled as blind optimism, which we don’t need. We’ve been acting (and accusing others of being) blind for long enough.

I challenge all of you to con- sider this: politicians are still humans and American citizens in the end. I challenge you to send a letter to every politician who represents you. Send them the feedback you have. Show them that you wish to work with them instead of being spectators.

I’m not so dense as to deny that a number of politicians just want the position for power, but it should be our responsibility as citizens of this country to make this a better democracy. Instead
of government working for the people, or vice versa, let’s have the two entities to work together.
Am I saying that you shouldn’t have an alignment with a particular party? No. We need to acknowledge that there are those in the government who oppose our views, and that contrasting views will make for better results.

The war on terror is not the only war we are currently facing. There is a war being fought amongst ourselves. Jipson’s article showed me an attitude we shouldn’t have -- that the solution to a government always involves changing those in it. That’s purely a short-term solution.

Instead of demeaning those in the government, we should be working alongside those individuals who we mock. I hear people griping and whining every day about politicians, and when I ask many of these how many times they’ve tried to con- tact said politicians, the answer I get more often than not is “Never.” It’s selfish to just stand back and pretend that government is supposed to work for us without effort on our part.

We need to first laugh at ourselves and recognize our flaws, and we need to work together to help erase those flaws. Criticizing the flaws and pointing blame at others solves nothing.

Ted Jacobs
Student