The Government, On Loan To Politicians, Is Us

This is in reference to Richard Nicks' letter entitled "Democracy For Sale" in the Dec. 17 edition of Hernando Today. He expresses his frustration and that of so many other Americans with the direction the leadership of our country has taken.

This didn't just happen. It evolved over a number of years, and we voters allowed it to happen. Over the years, too many of us stayed home on Election Day. We have allowed ourselves to become lazy in our thinking. We believed the carefully crafted sound bites of candidates over the years. This is evidenced by listening to debates among voters who support their arguments with those sound bites rather than researching the issues and making their own educated opinions.

We no longer listen to opposing views or compare them to our views and then weigh both carefully. We seem incapable to consider the best of both views to either alter or more strongly confirm out own views. Over the years we have lost our desire to think for ourselves.

Mr. Nicks wrote in his letter, "Whatever happened to 'Government of the People, For the People?'" Whether intentional or by accident, he left out something very important. Those words come from President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19, 1863. He closed his address by saying, "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Perhaps the most important part of Lincoln's speech were the words "by the people." The government is us, and we have forgotten that. We have forgotten that politicians really do not have power, we just loan it to them for two, four or six years.

We, the people, have not been doing our job. Perhaps now in this critical and frightening time we the people will become re-engaged in running our country, stop listening to sound bites, stop placing the blame on the messenger, think for ourselves and do the necessary research of facts during election seasons to determine who really is best to represent us at every level of government.

Leo D. Dougherty

Brooksville