Please, rock the boat!

By Dan Barber

I’m sure most everyone has heard the expression, “don’t rock the boat.” Guess what? We are all on a rocking boat. That is a good thing because I see a lot of people waking up from a long slumber of just going along to get along.

Our free society is experiencing an evolution of change that some view as a revolution. We need to be aware of who the leaders of the revolution are so we aren’t thrown from the rocking boat into the sea of a tyrannical society.

Controlling communication is the mark of tyranny.  Protecting the free flow of communication is the mark of freedom.

Truth can be viewed as a fluid thing depending on the audience. We all have our filters that are created in our social environment. Smart but evil people can manipulate those filters to create a following… that is how religious cults or political action committees are founded. Most people know how futile arguing political or religious views can be with a close-minded individual.

Our country was created by some people who can be viewed as scoundrels or evil in our current societal norms but to the social standing of these people at the birth of our nation they were viewed as virtuous leaders. 

Whether viewed as virtuous or a scoundrel the founders of America did us a great favor, either by accident or intentionally, through the creation of the Constitution by putting “We the People” in charge of our own destiny. Every employee of the Government to include uniformed military people must take an oath to protect the Constitution from all enemies both foreign and domestic…notice the oath does not say to protect the country…but to protect the legal document that guarantees the rule of “We the People.”

Since the founding of our country, we’ve had elected civil servants who’ve tried to manipulate our representative form of government to suit them or the powerful puppet master entities they represent. Our only hope of preventing our rocking boat, from being swamped by a powerful manipulator is to have a knowledgeable electorate (We the People).

We the People elect our civil servants to represent us as our legislators and executives thereby I believe non-partisan civics should be a required course of study along with reading, writing, math and social studies.

Some might find the stupidity of people regarding politics in “man on the street” interviews as hilarious, I view them as terrifying. Please be smart in using your vote to select our elected leaders.