Come Dream With Me….
March 18, 2008 | 4 Comments
Wow. Thanks for all the feedback on yesterday’s post. And while I understand that most of it came in the form of private emails and calls, I’m going to be counting on you – my fellow dreamers – to come out of the closet and get on this bandwagon soon. This little populist train is revving up and ready to climb some mighty big hills – hills that include a real health care revolution, some sanity to the tax and spend policies at the Statehouse, a new respect for the natural beauty and fountain of possibilities that exist within Vermont’s environment and landscape, and a real and open discussion about supporting Vermont’s soldiers now serving in Iraq by bringing them home NOW.
It’s about dreaming. Moreover, it’s about making the dreams of the people becoming the realities of our elected officials – the way it should be. For far too long, the dreams of the people have been routinely extinguished by the dullards who dominate our government. And they’re not unrealistic dreams, either. The people want some economic security in the form of fair taxation, a sane heath care policy, a dedication to keeping Vermont’s landscapes both working and clean, and a simple comfort in knowing that hard working families will be rewarded, not ignored and/or threatened.
Imagine – or dream, if you will – if our government acted with the same kind of haste and determination for working families that they acted with when it comes to Wall Street corporations. Bear Stearns finds economic trouble and the federal government rushed in with $30 billion to prop its buyout up. But, here in Vermont, the same economic downturn leads Vermont’s super-majority-Democrats to announce that they have to remove health care reform from the table this year. Got that, folks?
Worse, the hierarchy of Vermont’s Progressive Party has forced itself into a self-induced state of silence on these important issues because its perennial candidate, Anthony Pollina, is too busy courting those same Democrats than highlighting the important policy differences between them. The result? We, the people, lose once again.
Sorry, but how many elections – both statewide and nationwide – are we going to be told to just “sit tight” in silence while the “big-wigs” work it all out for us. “Shhh,” they say, don’t rock the boat on the war, on impeachment, on health care, on justice, on stopping torture, on stopping illegal wiretaps, on protecting our resources, on crying foul with corporate bailouts, on the oh-so-tiring double and triple talk of it all. Yes, be silent people, because “they” are working on it.
How’s that silence working out for you?
This is not the time for silence amongst the people in Vermont or all across this nation or this world. It is a time to speak out. To be heard. And to make demands. It’s democracy time, folks, rev up your tongues and your pens and your votes. If anything must be silenced, it is the lullabies of the power elite.
When Peter Shumlin and the Democrats hum the tune of “no health care reform this year” into your ear, resist it and speak out. When Gaye Symington offers her soothing apologies for the complete two-year failure of the super-majority she wields in the Vermont House, demand solutions or her seat. And when Governor Douglas announces – as he did yesterday – that he’s giving money to the Von Trapp’s to fix their barn roof, ask him why they get a new barn roof and we get to turn back the bed sheets at their inn? Enough with the silence. Enough with the lullabies. Because naptime is over. Oh yeah, it’s morning time in Vermont’s democracy.
Let’s speak up. And speak out. Let’s not be afraid to dream. And let’s not be afraid to let the purveyors of the politics-as-usual know that our passions and our ideals will not be extinguished by their games or their deals.
We’re fully capable of keeping score at home. And, frankly, we’re tired of losing.
Indeed, come dream with me.
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