The Big Buy

Today begins brilliantly and with coolness here.

I wanted to share with you an e-mail I sent a little while ago to a local friend. Perhaps you have heard of the new movie, The Big Buy: Tom Delay's Stolen Congress. While I have not yet seen the movie I am sure it is very valuable and am interested in seeing it. In responding to a recent invitation to see the movie, I took the opportunity to express my opinion on certain progressive groups who are now focusing on the November elections. The book Hidden Power: What You Need to Know to Save Our Democracy by Charles Derber makes clear the importance of avoiding the election trap. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. It is a must read for everyone who cares about our democracy. I have copied the main body of my e-mail below.

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Hi, Felicia*,

Thanks very much for the invitation to see the movie [The Big Buy: Tom Delay's Stolen Congress]. I did want to reply to you because of the RSVP. Just now, my plans are a bit uncertain for next week, as I am going on summer break from school teaching. However, if I end up being in town I will be interested in seeing the movie. Do you have a deadline for making a reservation?

Quite a bit is going on with me. I have a new web log for one thing. It is being well-received so far. After much thought and study, I have decided to only monitor elective politics for the time being. Over the summer, if I get extra time I hope to be involved in politics, though it seems doubtful I will be involved in elective politics. It does seem inappropriate to me to be involved in a system which put a G.W. Bush in the Oval Office, not once but twice. That is a sign that the system is broken and needs fixing. So we should be concentrating on fixing the system first, then on electing good people to office. Instead, what people are doing is the same old thing -- trying to elect people without fixing the core problem. I think you probably know from your reading what I mean about the core problems with our elections. I mean, people should be out on the streets in droves protesting what happened in 2004. But first, they need the facts. The media in this country are complicit in keeping the truth from the American people. I regard them as criminals for this. We should be focused on bringing the media to account. We must get our priorities straight. I am saying all this because of the continuing appeals which I receive to support this or that candidate for office. Unfortunately, I am helplessly unable to assist for the reasons described above.

Certainly, I am interested in knowing what is going on. But will the Democrats, even if they take charge, know what to do to turn this country around? Or will they, as before, cater to the needs of big business, simply putting some restrictions on big corporations in order to take the edges off of the pain for the majority of working people, leaving a substantial minority out in the cold? Such a situation is not acceptable.

So I will close here. I don't want this to be a tirade. And please don't misunderstand me; I am all for people doing whatever they can to improve things. I just want us to be big and large in what we do, not all caught up in things of lesser importance. I hope you understand.Please do keep me informed....

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*The name of my correspondent has been changed.