To the President and all members of Congress

To the President and all members of Congress,

I am thoroughly disgusted with almost all of you—all except those who have stood up for principles rather than political grandstanding. You were hired to do a job, and you are absolutely failing. My disappointment will be reflected on my upcoming ballots for many years to come.

Meanwhile, we are in a quagmire, and it appears you need some direction. Let me offer some. I do not pretend to understand all the ins and outs of our national budget, but there are certain things that I see that you have put up for debate that I find unbelievable. Let me clarify a few things for you.

1. You don’t send soldiers to war, then even consider not paying them! They don’t get enough pay as it is! They are constantly under strain, facing death, the deaths of comrades, separation from family—you know the list (I hope). To let them get wind of the idea that their government might even give voice to the thought of deserting them in this way is the most demoralizing act you could commit toward them. Shame on you for even thinking it!

2. 2. Social Security is not yours to play with! That money was put in your trust by millions of hard-working Americans. We earned it and believed you when you said you would hold it and invest it and return it to us when we got old and needed it back. We let you use it in good faith. But you have repeatedly raided the till and now are claiming there isn’t enough money in it. Whose fault is that? We are still required to pay in, and now you’re telling us we may not be able to get our money out. That, my friends, is akin to the Enron debacle. Why would we make an investment that we know is going to fail? If you want to change the rules for future contributions, that’s fine; but you made a contract with every person who fed into that fund, and you have no right to change the rules for that money that has already been paid in.

3. 3. Welfare is a blight on this country. It was intended as a stop-gap to help people temporarily when they hit hard times. If you really want to “save” some money, make the people who are multigenerational welfare recipients go to work. What you have taught them is that they can rely on the government (i.e., taxpayers) to pay for everything—that they are entitled to sit on their couches, watching TV, while the rest of America goes out and works to support them. You’re not doing them any favors. Yes, there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for a while, but soon they will learn the self-respect that comes with making one’s own way in the world, and they will take pride in their accomplishments. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

4. 4. Stop any and all programs that support the existence of illegal aliens in this country. I won’t call them “undocumented immigrants.” They are here illegally and draining the resources of those who follow the rules. They do not deserve to be here under those circumstances. If they want to leave, go through the correct procedures and return, that’s fine. That’s the only way that is acceptable.

5. 5. Understand the word “budget”—you know, that one you told us to tighten. That set of rules that dictates how we are to live within our means, refrain from buying things we can’t afford, and be otherwise fiscally responsible. We are required to learn to make do with the money we have, and nobody bails us out if we can’t. We can’t print more money—that’s illegal for us. We can’t force our employers to pay us more to get us out of holes, but that’s what you’re trying to do to us—again. As a matter of fact, you’ve done it to us over and over. Just where is the line drawn? You are acting like feudal lords—you want more, so you put it on the backs of the serfs to provide it, and we’re supposed to happily go to the fields and work ourselves to death for your gain, all the while losing hope that we’ll ever be able to achieve our own dreams. That’s not freedom, my friends, and we who are still in sight of what freedom is will not sit back and accept that. Learn to live within your means!

6. 6. Finally, remember who you are. You were elected by the people to serve us. You are required to represent our interests, not your political ambitions. I personally believe that the Founding Fathers never intended for there to be career politicians. I am convinced that the corruption that we see rampant in our government and its agents is just one more manifestation of entitlement. You think that once you’re in government, you’re set for life. As long as you play the game and keep getting yourself reelected, you’ve got a huge income (by the standard of most taxpayers, let alone the world) and the best benefits and retirement packages on the planet. Many of you, therefore, will do anything—moral or not—to keep your positions. I plan to do all I can to put an end to government entitlement programs. Your behavior in past weeks has proven to me more than ever that your interests are not those of the people you are supposed to represent. Most of you are coming off as selfish, childish, and undeserving of our trust, let alone our tax dollars to fund your posh lifestyles. Let’s try this: any elected official with a net worth of $2 million or more gets no paycheck, benefits or perks for a year. Can you get by better than Grandma, who lives on Social Security and Medicare?

We have no choice at the eleventh hour but to leave this mess in your hands. But believe me, we won’t make this mistake again. Americans are proud people. Most of us understand what has made this country great, and we won’t let anyone destroy it. Your irresponsibility in the past few months has awakened a sleeping giant. The patriotism that has seen this people through wars, attacks, depressions, and any and all other challenges to our freedoms has brought “we, the people” to our feet. This is our country. We want it back. And we have the means to take it. It’s called “the vote.”

How to Fix Congress, in One Easy Decade

Occasionally, my political side sneaks out....

How to Fix Congress, in One Easy Decade

The intent of the founding fathers was that legislators serve in the Congress for a few years, then go home and rejoin the ranks of regular people. In so doing, we would ensure that the people in Washington never lost touch with the needs of everyday people, because they would BE everyday people. Government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address) does not provide for career politicians.

Where did we go wrong? I suppose it was with a combination of things. Some of those have been ambitious power-grabbers who saw ways to have wealth and authority over the long haul; early communication systems that were not the greatest, and manipulative campaigns, fueled by massive organizations with the same goals. All of these allowed those people to pull the wool over lots of eyes. Gullibility and/or complacency on the part of the masses contributed. We let them take over. We allowed them to vote themselves into permanent positions. We gave them license to raise their own salaries and give themselves sumptuous perks, including lifetime pensions, healthcare plans far better than we will ever see, and jet travel and vacations at our expense. We even ignored it when they voted to amend the tax codes in their favor. (Do you know that “first time home buyers in the District of Columbia” get breaks that no one else does? And who would those people be?) We allowed it to happen, but it’s time to insist that it stop.

No matter how good they may be in their positions, lifetime politicians are inevitably going to become jaded, out-of-touch, Washington insiders who are more concerned about keeping their jobs than they are about moving this country in the right direction. That’s why we have “pork barrel” issues—these are projects that Congresspeople promote because it will make their constituents happy in the short term, thereby ensuring their reelections. I know there are exceptions—people who are really trying to help the residents of their states—but they are few and far between. When someone’s job depends on getting good things on the resume, there will be corruption. After FDR, we were smart enough to realize that the Presidency should not be conferred on any one person for too long. Why have we not seen the larger need to implement this in Congress?

I propose that we mount a grassroots campaign to go back to basics.

· No one in the legislative branch would be allowed to serve for more than six years consecutively. That means one term in the Senate and up to 3 terms in the House of Representatives. After that period of time, they would be required to go home and work regular jobs—NO LOBBYING! (In fact, there would be severe penalties for violation of this rule. Even if it’s not a law, WE can ensure that it is enforced by the way we vote.) After four years of working in the real world, they could again run for office.

· Benefits for members of Congress would be decided by the voters in open elections. They would not have the right to change any of their own benefits. (They decide ours—why do we have no say in theirs?)

· No global benefits for Congress (such as healthcare packages) could exceed those offered to the general public. PERIOD.

· Pensions, if any, could not exceed those offered to other government workers for service over the same period of years. (We may not want to offer pensions when people are serving only 6 years in a job. Besides, lack of pensions in Congress would be an incentive for people to go back to the real world and save for retirement just like the rest of us.)

· Salaries of Congress people would be reduced, and the perks severely curtailed. How can they relate to the middle and lower classes if they are living lives of privilege? Salaries should not exceed $100,000 per year, maximum. That’s enough for anybody to live on. Many of them are independently wealthy anyway—they don’t need the paycheck. (Take a page from George Washington’s book, people.)

To this end, I intend to carefully scrutinize the activities and service/voting records of every member of state and federal legislatures over whom I can exert my control (i.e., my vote) and do my part to begin returning this country to the system that was intended.

Of course, no one in Congress will endorse this plan—it frustrates their career goals. But we don’t need their support or their stamp of approval. We have the vote—that’s all we need. We can carefully look at the records of everyone who runs for office. If they’ve been there 6 years, out they go—no exceptions. If they want to come back, they can run again in four years; and if they are reelected, it is much more likely that it will be because of their merits—not our complacency.

Some would argue that we need seasoned pros in office. Fine. They can have served as mayors, city councilpeople, governors, etc. They can get experience along the way. And again, they are welcome to run for office after going back to civilian life. But the life of privilege that they now enjoy as career politicians has got to end. They only way to stop corruption is to take the possibility of corruption away from everyone. (Sure, there will be those who will manage to ruin themselves despite our efforts, but they will be fewer, farther between, and the damage they can inflict will be less.)

We may not be able to change the laws regarding their benefits right off the bat, but we can remove from office the people who made those laws; that will be a sound beginning. If every voter follows this plan over the next decade, 2022 will see us with totally NEW state and federal Congresses, full of people there to do right by this country, with no personal gain in mind.

The vote is a powerful tool. If we think about how we are using it, we can take our country back.

The little “d” thing

Can we just lay this to rest once and for all? Let’s face the elephant in the room. What’s with the little “d” at the beginning of my name? I often tell people that it has something to do with a cosmic experience involving e.e. cummings, which isn’t exactly untrue.

I was always one of multiple Debbies in school. I remember five in first grade—Debbie Peters, Debbie Streeter…oh, I’ll think of the others later. As I grew up we moved a lot, but there were always plenty of Debbies to fill the hoppers. Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on your point of view—m y parents had spelled my name Debbi. I at least had that to distinguish myself. When I got to high school, I read some stuff by e.e. cummings, and being an aspiring writer, I thought he had something going there; so I started signing my name with all lowercase letters. It became my legal signature.

Strangely, when I got married, I didn’t think Weitzell looked right in lowercase. A lowercase “w”? What was my problem? Anyway, it stayed capped and the rest stayed LC. No big mystery. It just worked out that way.

Then, when I went freelance, it turned out to be a good thing. People remembered it. I’d make a contact, get an appointment, and they’d say, “Oh, yeah—debbi with a little “d.” What better hook could I have asked for?

Now I’m getting ready to publish a book. The big time. The publisher likes the book. Yaay! But her first comment? “You should capitalize your first name. People will think it’s a typo.” Sigh. Someday there will be so many autographed copies of my books around—signed little “d” debbi—that everyone will understand. Till then, if you see one of my books and my name is printed with a capital “D,” you’ll have the inside scoop. It’s still me—little “d”—conforming; but only as long as is absolutely necessary.

Dragons

We all have to start somewhere, so this is where I begin—the blog, that is. The writing started a lo-o-o-ng time ago.

I’m a writer. That’s not just a chosen profession, it’s who I am. As a kid I “wrote”—all of it in my head, then spoken as I played all the characters in the “scripts.” As a teenager, I began putting pen to paper, but if any of those manuscripts ever surface I will deny any knowledge of them. Over the years I’ve written everything from radio commercials to service manuals, and most things in between. My favorites, of course, are the most creative types—the stories, the plays, the screenplays. The bottom line is: I have to write.

This is from our daughter’s blog: “I have a friend who recently shared the theory of the dragon with me. Her mother saw a therapist that explained that many creative people have an inner ‘dragon’ that needs to be nourished and fed on a continual basis. This therapist explained that many push off the desire to do creative things because they think of it as frivolous, unnecessary or simply something that can be done later, when there is more free time. Neglecting the dragon causes it to become restless and grumpy. But when we feed this dragon with artistic pursuits it is happy and content.” (http://wmdesignstudio.blogspot.com/search/label/feed%20the%20dragon)

I guess dragons run in the family—every one of us has at least one. And what glorious beasts they are! They are all very different—some bend toward art, design, photography, music, programming, media production, writing (there are more, but you get the idea). The fact that we all have them helps us to understand one another, and to recognize creative slumps and the depression that surrounds them as manifestations of noncreativity. That also means we know the cure, and can encourage one another to pick up the camera, the brush, the keyboard—whatever—to beat off the monsters.

On the other hand, those dragons are what drive us to achieve. If there were no fire built under us, what would we accomplish? The undying sparks that our dragons provide stoke the fires within and make us want to press forward. That’s how it is for me, anyway. If I go too long without creating something in some way…. Well, it would have been interesting a few years ago to install a pressure valve in my head and watch the steam build. It would start slowly—I’d just get a little dull. Then I would do an odd thing, which was basically nothing at all. Then I would do anything and everything—cleaning, laundry, moving furniture—all the things I felt I had to do and which I blamed for keeping me from writing or painting, and do them in an angry frenzy. Finally, I would explode into some artistic endeavor, and come out the other end of that smiling and excited about life again.

I suppose that process really hasn’t changed too much. I can still catch myself starting into that cycle. The difference now it that I am a writer full time, which oddly doesn’t mean that I get to sit down and write eight to ten hours a day; it means that there are less things that pull at me, and that I have a lot more time than I did before when I actually have the option of sitting down to write. Having the discipline to do that is what keeps the dragons off my back; letting the world get in the way still riles them. So if you call me in the middle of the day when I “ought to answer, because you’re just home now,” don’t be insulted if I let your call go to voice mail. The dragons are hungry!