[FedCom] IMPORTANT BAD NEWS - Homeland Security bill includes HR3482

Fri, 15 Nov 2002 23:38:26 -0500

Hi Duane..

Right you are... but one of my self-appointed missions is to get folks riled
up to care and participate.

I do talk to horse (actually the horse's ear).  ...  I am fortunate to get
their attention on a very few issues -- a few US Senators of both
persuasions and 6 House reps in addition to my two Senators and Rep.  I have
had face-to-face/one-on-one sessions with each of these folks within the
past 24 months.

All I get about the topic I had noted -- "over" legislation -- is a lot of
excuses and party rhetoric.  It has very little to do with the actual
legislation being bashed around in this thread.  Mere mortals truly have
little to fear - no one is really going to break their door down to check
the memories in their scanners.  It's more to do with just getting folks to
care.. care to read, understand, form an opinion, and then go out and
exercise a privilege.

It is quite true that most folks don't vote (50% in national elections), and
don't know what's even going on, AND just plain don't care.  About 30% of
the adult population just appears to be more worried about getting to the
package store for beer before it closes on Friday and Saturday night.

I actually saw a local interview, filmed a day after the recent election,
with a woman who did not vote because both the Polls and the lotto machine
closed at the same time for the Tuesday drawings.   Unfortunately, she is
not alone in her priorities.

I'm convinced that about 50% of those who do vote do so on what they
perceive is a candidate's or party's stand on a single issue... usually
Social Security, Right to Life, or a single program that directly affects
them.  Of the remaining voters, about half of them vote strictly along party
lines based on their station in life or what party they were 'raised under'.
I in no way advocate their reasoning - just pointing it out as an example of
the decline in our society.  These two groups are, IMHO, just about equally
divided - Republicans and Democrats.

That gives us, the remaining 20% of the voters who actually think about
multiple issues and what we believe is best for the country as a whole,
tremendous leverage.  Recent national elections have been closer than ever.
Besides the 2000 Presidential vote, quite a few recent elections were won
with only a 1-2% margin.  One of my newer concerns is that the entire
election process is not calibrated well enough to accurately measure 1-2%
margins.  Even the claims about the 'popular vote' in the 2000 Presidential
election are bunk.  Many states intentionally did NOT count some of their
absentee and military ballots because they would not have changed the
outcome in THAT state, and the cost was therefore avoidable.  Collectively,
it's something like a million uncounted votes.

How many folks decide who to vote for by watching the 11PM news on the eve
of the election?

I do believe that the US Senate comprises the 100 most powerful folks in the
US.  A closely divided Senate (say 48-48 + 4 independents) would give those
4 undue leverage on most major issues... not the one-person/one-vote
republic we are supposed to have.

At the risk of sounding a bit patronizing, I'm pretty sure that you are
amongst the minority of voters who do 'think'.  I like to think that I am
also,  If others don't want to partake in the decision process, than I am
happy to have my views leveraged against their uncaring.

Regards,

Frank
 ._._.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2002 8:07 PM
Subject: Re: [FedCom] IMPORTANT BAD NEWS - Homeland Security bill includes
HR3482

> Frank,
>
> And what ever happened to we Americans showing up at the polls and voting?
Or
> how many of us bother to pick up the telephone and call our Congressman or
> Senator? Even worse, how many of us even bother to write them about our
> concerns? Most of us do what is going on here, gripe to deaf ears. If you
want
> results, then talk to the horses's mouth, not the tail.
>
> Duane Fischer, W8DBF
>
> ----------

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