Forget "Voting "Em Out": Here's the Real Remedy for Bad Legislators

In case you don't know by now, we can keep 'em in, or vote 'em out, and still get the same result: our legislators do whatever they want once they're in office...which is most assuredly whatever their highest bidders demand, no matter what was promised us on the campaign trail....right?

That's because we've been approaching this from the wrong perspective: we've been "treating the symptom" rather than curing the disease.

And what is the disease that, if cured, will make our legislators much more beholdin' to us, more connected to our reality vs. their insular world, and get them doing something of substance once in office?

I call it the "Royalty Syndrome." If we eliminate it, we will see the kinds of action we so deserve from our elected officials.

The Royalty Syndrome is based on the following facts of public office in the U.S., particularly on the national level (but we see it on the State & Local levels too, just to a degree that diminishes the farther from Washington they are):

• Legislators are treated like...well...royalty...with all sorts of perks, assistants, deference, and special programs (like their own terrific health-care plan)
• With such treatment and expectations, they quickly and easily lose focus on their constituents, replaced by a sense of self-importance
• Once they've had a taste of such royal treatment, no way do they want to lose it...so they'll do anything/everything to avoid that

Here's the cure:

• Eliminate their perks, from special health-care plans to town cars & loads of assistants (they can have one...just like other managers in the real world)
• As a Legislator, your children must attend public school
• Pay them the equivalent of the average wage-earner's salary in the US, which is $81,400 according to the Census Bureau (members of Congress currently make $174,000)
• They cannot travel by means other than public transportation (cabs in town, commercial airlines across country) and they must fly coach

There's more we can add to the list, be these are great starters.

This does a number of things to hit the proverbial "reset" button back to true representation of us, not special interests:

1. Eliminates those who run because they love power and prestige (which right now is almost everyone...I've always believed that anyone who wants the office is someone I wouldn't want in it, because they desire it for the wrong reasons...)
2. Replaces them with folks who don't mind hard work, are not in it for self-aggrandizement, and will want to get in, get the job done, and get out
3. Eliminates what is right now a very insular culture within the ranks of Legislators, fed and magnified by their "royal" treatment - when they are treated like the rest of us, they will act like "regular folks"
4. Serves as a constant reminder that they are servants of the people, not Emirs

Only when our legislators are treated like the rest of us will they remember who we are, what their real purpose is, and what is needed by the majority of citizens.

So, my fellow Boomers, this is what you want to be pushing for, rather than staying with the same tired approach we've been using all of our adult lives, that simply hasn't worked.

How's that for change?

"The Daughter Trap" by Laurel Kennedy

The new book, The Daughter Trap, Taking Care of Mom and Dad...and You, is written with much love by Laurel Kennedy: love for our elderly first, then for those of us who pretty much give up having a life to care for them when they become incapable of living on their own.

Although filled with excerpts from interviews with a cross-section of Boomers, from the youngest to the oldest of us, men and women, those caring for their own parents and those caring for in-laws, all of which serve well to let fellow Boomers know they're not in this alone (and giving voice to the sadness, frustration, overwhelm, and myriad other emotions that go along with this gargantuan responsibility), what is most useful are her concrete action steps to be taken, resources to be accessed, and social/media discrimination that must be changed.

Men still expect women to be the primary caretakers...even of their own parents, and our parents expect that, too; the media is rightly on top of the lack of services/resources for children in need, but still far too often ignore the fact that little exists for the aged and those who care for them. The few progressive/innovative programs that are out there, or trying to start, designed to give our parents wonderful choices for living fully even if they cannot do it independently, get little help or attention.

Boomers have, and continue to, change entire mind-sets, social values, and communal expectations. Laurel Kennedy makes it abundantly clear that this, the way we care for our elders and the emphasis needed on this issue if our society is ever to get to even adequate let alone stellar around it, must be our new fight. Good thing it doesn't require sit-ins...that's a little too painful at this point in our lives... It requires instead the use of our formidable influence in government and the halls of commerce, our consistent attention to the issue with the media, and our Boomer-proven determination to right another wrong.

Only we have the power and the ability to make this change; taking elder care from back- to front-burner.

Read Laurel's book to find out why, and get some wonderful ideas on how, while you glean some very useful ideas/resources for elder-care if you are doing so now, or are about to take it on soon.

Then get on your Boomer high horse and start demanding better for them; in your community; in the nation.

It's what we do, and our parents deserve it.

Is Afghanistan Our Children's Vietnam?

With all the (primarily media) comparisons between Vietnam and our military presence in Afghanistan (and to some degree, Iraq), do our children now have to deal with a "wrong war" as we did at their age? Is President Obama right to be so tuned into the perceived similarities as to be rendering himself immobile as he "assesses the options" for the umpteenth time?

It seems that we think so more than they do. And they're the ones fighting it.

The most obvious difference is the attacks on us that precipated our military response in the Middle East & particularly Afghanistan (where Al Qaida thrives along the borders with Pakistan) vs. the total anti-communist paranoia that underpinned Vietnam. Even in Iraq, our military response was supported by a surprising source - Elie Weisel, Nobel Peace Prize winning holocaust survivor - who believed that we could not ignore the genocide taking place in Iraq as we ignored that in Germany prior to WWII. Not the "trumped up" reason used by the Bush Administration that parallels Vietnam.

Then, there's the frightening fact that left unaddressed over there, there will be more attacks over here - with our presence there we are still uncovering/thwarting attack attempts over here. The Vietnamese were no threat to our borders.

Finally, the world in 2009 is so very different from the world in 1969. Much smaller and far more interdependent. Many countries now nuclear-armed did not have such weapons of mass destruction then. In 1969, those who would kill based on religious ideology were confined to small pockets of their own countries, had no money, and had access to no technology; today they are exported around the world, with sophisticated technological capacity and well financed. If Al Qaida, or their pals the Taliban, get hold of nuclear materials from next-door Pakistan, the world is in serious danger. This was not a concern in Vietnam.

The answer, then, my fellow Boomers, is: no. There are no credible parallels between Vietnam and our military efforts now in the Middle East.

Other than those we trump up.

On "An Open Letter to Obama"

Your thoughts? My perspective on Pritchett's "Open Letter to Obama" that's been circulat'g...& circulat'g... www.boomercoach.wordpress.com

It's become clear how very easy it is for folks, frustrated and disappointed with so many things in their lives right now, to latch onto non-truths when it comes to healthcare reform, and use that faulty information to vent - venomously often.

This is a small attempt to bring some truth to the fore, in the hope that it will help those who wish to discuss the issue calmly, sanely, and with the facts.
http://www.examiner.com/x-654-Baby-Boomer-Examiner~y2009m8d6-AARP-fights-back-on-health-care

Baby boomers could lend a hand in teaching new generation - Related Stories - ASCD SmartBrief

Baby boomers could lend a hand in teaching new generation - Related Stories - ASCD SmartBrief

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