Don't trust politicians - But don't shoot them either!

Even though Council and I will be in a political battle the next couple months over Issue 29 where they will be trying to convince you that politicians should be trusted and I hope you can see we need a system with checks and balances, that doesn’t mean that you should get frustrated or turn to extreme measures.  Unless that extreme measure is to go out and make sure your neighbors are aware there is a political battle and they should be engaged (by the way Vote No on Issue 29).
 
There are a couple of Facebook threads that caught my attention recently.  One thread was started by a friend of mine who suggested the military should march on Washington, line up all of Congress and shoot them.  Since he actually helped get me some signatures for getting on the ballot, it made me wonder if he wanted to implement his plan before or after I was there.  Either way, it is a suggestion that only distracts from the efforts made by those that are working to improve our government.  The other Facebook thread started as a discussion of another article I wrote with the theme residents should vote no on the Charter Amendments.  For the most part I thought the discussion contained good back and forth.  But then someone wrote a comment that showed they were frustrated;
 
“I thought the last election was about change!?!  Only change I see is the personnel, other than that it's the same junk coming out of council.  For the people???  I call BS”
 
One of the things I hope to achieve in writing this article is to convince people that a good debate with differing opinions is healthy and should be encouraged.  If people are going to complain about council, what they need to complain about are those council members that waste so much of our meeting time complaining about the length of our meetings that we never get around to discussing the real issues.   On the other hand, here is an example of an extreme suggestion that actually hurts our ability to have a healthy discussion.
 
My friend posted:  Those of you who have talked to me face to face, you know that one of my ideas has always been the "reset button." Basically, the U.S. military marching into Washington DC and lining ALL the politicians up against a wall and taking every last one of them out. That's from El Presidente to the lowest Congressman. Walking away and issuing a statement, "America, start over. Try again. Hold another round of elections and get new leaders." I dare say that during the Bush administration, a lot of (not all of, but a lot of) my Democratic friends would have been on board. I know from private conversations that most of my Republican friends would have no problem with this during our current administration. The question I have now, though, is this: if a "little revolution now and then is a good thing," as one of our founding fathers said;
 
I replied:  I can't believe the message that I read in this post. The solution to what ails this country is to line people up and shot them?
 
My friend:  As a last resort, absolutely. I would much rather see the states to call for a Constitutional Convention. The results of which would be to put term limits on all federal office holders such as House members and Senators; Abolishing the IRS and replacing it with either the Fair Tax or even a flat tax; and making it so that anyone caught lying to a federal agency is automatically disqualified from seeking election or reelection to any federal office or being appointed to any other federal position.
 
I replied:  the issue here is that it appears your "last resort" will be triggered if you lose the political argument. Being someone that has seen the Beautiful city of Sarajevo and realized how much worse the standard of living became for the people of that country just because they felt they needed to turn to the violent last resort worries me when I see people I respect think that we in this country are so close to that point that it needs to be discussed as an option. We are nowhere near that point in this country.
 
The Democrats could raise taxes to 90% and register all the guns in the country, and the Republicans can keep workers at poverty level another 20 years and we wouldn't be too the point where we would want to live like those in Sarajevo.
 
My friend: Valid point.
 
Vote no on Issue 29
I want the residents of Huber Heights to vote no on the City Charter Amendments, especially Issue 29, because I don’t believe we can count on Council’s judgement to make sure we get the opportunities we need to provide input to their decisions if we change the charter the way they want to.  Issue 29 is the important one to defeat.  It is the one titled ARTICLE V: LEGISLATION; Sections 5:04; 5.06; & 5.07.  Remember, if you go for this change then it becomes standard practice for council to reveal, vote on and adopt resolutions in one meeting and we as residents are stuck hoping council gives us more than what is required on important issues such as the sale of a $2 million property or hiring the consulting firm for the Energy Aggregation program.

On the other hand, just because politicians shouldn’t be trusted and our City Charter needs to be written so we don’t have to depend on politicians to do the right thing doesn’t mean we should advocating extreme measures.  I hope you agree because this politician needs your help in making sure the Charter is designed with built in protections.

Read my article on Issue 29 and make sure you vote no.  

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