BY SHARON MARTIN
Someone I love says that people don’t have time to find out how their legislators voted.
“Who cares about a candidate’s voting record?” he says. “Citizens vote for the D or the R by the candidates’ names. They vote how their preacher tells them to. They are swayed by what they see on television.”
What’s wrong with listening to the television?
First, there are six companies that own most media outlets in the United States. They have their own agenda: to make money.
Second, people with billions of dollars and their own motives determine what ads go on air.
Third, if you don’t take time to get actively involved in politics, elections are nothing but a sham, just more reality television. Like the Hunger Games, you know, kids killing each other for your viewing pleasure.
A bill passed out of the Senate recently – SB 1187 – that guts schools. They call it deregulation, but what it does is strip teachers of any assurance that four or more years of college will pay a living wage.
It allows districts to take away teacher insurance, and why not? They’ve already knocked the working poor off the Medicaid rolls. Workers. Not mooches. Working for jobs that don’t pay enough to house, feed, and protect their families.
Remember, the governor signed a bill that says cities in the state can’t raise the minimum wage. She doesn’t care how hard you work or how little you get for it.
Meanwhile, she, her handlers, and her henchmen are intent on handing state services to the corporations who fund their elections and their future lobbying jobs.
This isn’t about free markets. Free markets aren’t in danger. What is in danger is the ability of citizens to thrive in a free-market economy.
If citizens have good preventive health services and a quality education, they’ll be able to get jobs. If they have a good paying job, they can buy stuff, raise families, and pay it forward for the next generation. Isn’t this what we all want?
How can we save this state if we don’t have time to educate ourselves before we vote? We’re re-electing con artists who deny our children’s right to a good education. We vote for people who lie to our face, tell us we can’t afford to insure the poor even though it costs more to not insure them.
If you believe our state government is being driven over the cliff, do your homework then vote the bad drivers out. And vote out the folks in the backseat, too, the ones yelling, “Faster! Faster!” to the woman behind the wheel.
– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
