Dear Mr./Mrs Politician....Who Do You Think You Are?

(A note from the author: This post is longer than usual which is always too long anyway. However, if anything in this post resonates with you or voices what you have not been able to give voice to, please feel free to share it liberally via your facebook, email, twitter, smoke signals, carrier pigeons, etc. I don't care. Just share. My copyright is at the bottom. I'd hate for anyone else to have to take the blame for my opinions!)

Dear Mr. and Ms. Politician (and also CNN, HLN, MSNBC, and FOX NEWS),

Let me introduce myself because you seem to have lost touch with me. I'm the person whose future you hold in your hands. Apparently, you have every reason to believe I do not hold yours in my hand. You simply act as tho' you are invincible.

On that account, you may be right because you govern a country of people who are mostly preoccupied by crackberries, Apple electronics, video games, and what those immoral, uneducated, neanderthals from the Jersey Shore are doing in Italy or where Casey Anthony will be sighted next and how much she will get to take her clothes off for photos. That works to your advantage, doesn't it? Most of us are too busy to know that we should be scared to death by the fact that ANY OF YOU are managing our future.

My friends will tell you that I never talk about religion. Yes, I talk about my faith all the time. I could care less about your religion. My poor mamma used to have heart failure because I knew people for almost a decade and had no idea where they chose to attend religious services. If your heart checks out as evidenced by your behavior, I could care less where you feed your faith. I'm just glad in this day and age you have one to feed!

My friends will also tell you they have never, ever heard me speak of politics in more than a passing sentence or two. I don't even wear those, “I voted” stickers! They might also tell you that they have rarely seen me angry. My family will tell you that while I can get pretty hot behind closed doors, they have rarely, if ever, seen me so mad I could cry.

Today, today....you made me so mad I broke loose in a Facebook rant and then broke down and cried. You simply make me sick to my stomach. I've had enough of your rich kid, spoiled brat, finger pointing, and self-interested absorption. And, don't tell me one more time everything that is going on in YOUR work place has to do with MY well-being. I don't buy it anymore.

I'm sick of your grand-standing and your finger pointing. Listen to me REAL CLOSE!! I DON'T CARE WHOSE FAULT IT IS: Lincoln's, Hoover's, Roosevelt’s, Kennedy's, Carter's, Reagan's, Bush's I/II, Clinton's, or Obama's. I don't care if it is the fault of the right wing Republicans, the left wing Democrats, the wandering around with their heads cut off Teabaggers, or the Ayatollah Khomeini’s. So, shut up about it already. If you are so for darn sure whose fault it is, then by gosh, you ought to know how to fix it. So, shut up and DO IT!

Since you all can't seem to think your ways out of a wet paper bag, why don't you let me connect some dots for you? Gasp, let's do the unthinkable and turn to a document that is over 2,000 years old for some pointers. They next time you are tempted to get all up on your hind legs and point fingers at your opponents, why don't you remember this little gem:

Luke 6:42 (Weymouth New Testament)

How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take that splinter out of your eye,' when all the while you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? Vain pretender! take the beam out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.

Maybe if you took a little time to confess to your constituents what part YOU have played in this meltdown, and spent less time trying to tell me why it is the other guy's fault, I might see you as credible at some point in the distant future. Unless and until you do, when you speak, this is what I'll hear: yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah.

Here's one more set of dots if you can stand it!

Luke 6:31 (Amplified Bible)

And as you would like and desire that men would do to you, do exactly so to them.

Well, if we could make that a reality, this is where each and every member of the government would be sitting today because of how your actions of impacted my family:

1. You would have filed chapter 13 because you had to choose between your health care COBRA premium and a house payment. Since you preferred a live spouse vs a corpse, the decision was easy to make. You would have been homeless and living with family for most of 2 years. You would lose that house knowing that every time you paid on your medical bills, an individual who entered this country illegally was getting better medical care for FREE.
2. You would have pulled yourself up from the gutter and managed to purchase another home to replace the one you lost in Chapter 13 to find that you now owe more on that home than it is worth. You would be considering walking away from that house even tho' that goes against every moral fiber of your being because you have proven you honor your debts even in the midst of a Chapter 13.
3. You would, tonight, be wondering what day your husband and brother would get laid off and be unemployed for the THIRD time in TEN years because of the stock market instability. You would know that all the jobs they used to be able to vie for have been sent overseas because government has made it so easy for industry to gain financially for doing so. Charity begins at home. Remember?
4. You would wonder HOW your house payment could go UP again even tho' it was worth $25,000 LESS than what you bought it for.
5. You would be teaching people who live in MILLION DOLLAR homes what a grocery coupon is and what to do with it as they FOLLOW you around the grocery store because they are afraid they won't have enough money tomorrow.

I'd go on, but I'm thinking you aren't listening. So, I'll jump to my idea of the solution. WE NEED TO VOTE OUT EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO PRESENTLY GOES TO WASHINGTON ON OUR BEHALF. In addition to that, we need to LIMIT who can RUN for offices during this next campaign season to the following parameters:

1. The candidate must not have EVER had a gross income, as filed in his/her tax forms, of MORE than 100K/year. NOTE: I didn't say 'adjusted gross', I said, 'gross'. That includes any hidden income!
2. They must NOT have investments or retirement funds that are worth more than 10K in total. (Poor people know how to manage money and compromise...obviously something you have never been or known how to do.)
3. They must pass a moral sniff test that even the National Enquirer could not overcome. Why? Because if you don't have the moral fortitude and compass to manage your personal lusts, why on EARTH would I believe you could manage the power that comes with governance?
4. They MUST have a certified birth certificate that is presented upon registering a candidacy. Why? Simply because I am sick to death of knowing you all will WASTE time stonewalling and bickering and feeding the media frenzy over things like that. MAKE IT SIMPLE STUPID. Oh wait...that is probably asking to much.
5. They must be allowed equal, free access to news media to publicize their candidacy, BUT each candidate is limited to ONE hour of publicity a week. Why? Because if time is limited, you will mean what you say and say what you mean. You will cut out all the empty, vain promises and pretty speeches that woo us and then disappoint us. You will spend more time talking to REAL people and less time talking AT each other or posturing for next pretty boy/girl media circus.
6. The candidate must have a 1^st degree relative who is serving or has served in the US military. Nuff said.
7. The candidate must show tax record proof of having contributed at LEAST 10% of his/her GROSS salary to the church or other benevolent charity of his or her choice for the LAST 10 years. Why? Because if you can't manage your money well enough to show PERSONAL consideration of your fellow man – commensurate with what you earn, you sure can't be trusted to manage the tax money you take out of my pocket every paycheck.

You go on about your merry way doing what you do. You won't ever answer to me. You'll sleep tonight just like you did last night. Thanks to our crackberry, Jersey Shore world, you'll even get elected again. So, here's the deal. I will sleep too even tho' I'm this mad. Because I know that there is a God who watches over the minutia of my life. He cares even if you don't. He has promised that he will use even evil kings to accomplish his goals for this hurting world. I take no comfort in your vainglorious promises, but I take that promise to the bank!

Proverbs 29:14 (The Message Bible)

Leadership gains authority and respect when the voiceless poor are treated fairly.

Get the message, no pun intended!

Kindly yours,

Carol Anne Wright Swett 2011
confessionsofafraidycat.blogspot.com

wife, homeschooling mom, college graduate, writer, person of faith, coupon shopper, chapter 13 survivor, homeless survivor, voter