are californians asleep at the wheel?

all week, i’ve been stewing over the california budget crisis. i am angry. i feel that our state politicians have violated the trust of the citizens of this state. our elected officials are sitting there fooling around while our state sinks deeper and deeper in debt.

and californians are sitting, complacently waiting for these elected officials to come to some kind of agreement and pass a budget. what are we doing? why are we silent? privately complaining about it? ignoring the issue because we’re too busy? why are californians as a group not getting involved in this and demanding that a solution be found RIGHT NOW. i think (and some agree and some don’t),  that the ultimate responsibility for bad government lies with the people that ignored the important issues of the times. that’s us. we’re allowing the very people we elected to represent us continue to make bad decisions. year after year, decision after decision.

go here http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/ and read the budget. it’s all right there, free for the reading. decide for yourself what you think. and then stand up and be heard. call your representatives. talk to your friends. get a discussion going, for crying out loud. it is not impolite to discuss politics. it doesn’t matter if you’re republican or democrat, libertarian or independent.  what matters is that this kind of political incompetence not be tolerated by the people of our state.

these are issues that deeply affect our lives and well-being. if we continue to bury our heads in the sand, our state government will continue to spend irresponsibly, and behave irresponsibly. and it’s just not okay.

a couple of quotes from long ago, when citizens were willing to engage in public debate and wanted nothing more than to be free to live their lives.

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

both quotes by Thomas Jefferson.