Column: Political Awareness Is Patriotism
This story was written by David Clyburn, The Crimson White
So the election is over and about half the people are happy while the other half isnt. The signs in the yard will come down, the stickers will come off the shirts, the buttons will come off the backpacks and the stickers off the bumpers. However, this does not mean that we, as Americans, are to bury our heads in the sand like a country of ostriches for three-and-a-half years.
We should not be a country of groundhogs peeking our heads over the edges of our holes periodically to see what the next four years will hold.
Stay involved in the political process. Read newspapers and pay attention to the things your government is doing. Visit Web sites and read blogs. Watch the news. Read books.
Voting is a meaningless action if it is uninformed, uneducated and a single entity. Your duty as a citizen of a country goes beyond the curtain of the voting booth. Do not cast a vote and turn your head blindly into the darkness to allow the people you elected to lead you down a path unquestioned and unchecked.
The political machine has not stopped just because the ballots have been counted and the seats filled. It is an ongoing process in which every step should be scrutinized and debated just as strongly with as much vigor and passion as you have shown during an election year.
I plead with the readers of this paper to please keep yourself educated and aware of what is going on around you, in your country, with the people that you elected. You have cast your ballots for these people, and they will represent you. Aristotle said, If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.
Protect liberty and equality, and to every bit of your personal ability, share in your democracy to the utmost.