Lessons Learned

One important lesson advocates have learned in the last three years --- Elections Matter! Who holds the seats of power matters. And values and ideology trump facts about pain and suffering being imposed upon people or economic havoc caused by budget cuts. Facts are all subject to interpretation by who holds power. Nonprofits can and must be engaged in electoral work.

Although nonprofit organizations are not allowed to endorse candidates, nonprofit organizations are allowed to do, and should do, voter registration, education and participation work because, as seen recently, elections are the hinge upon which swings our future. If nonprofit organizations won’t engage in electoral politics legally and ethically, the unlimited spending, borrowing, lying, wasting of the assault on health and human services, and education will continue until we have no nation left, health care is mandated, rationed like band-aids if at all, and basic education is so unaffordable that we reach third world standards in drop-outs, and the reduction in quality of primary and secondary education. We are nearing the point where college education will be issued through rationing just like the coming health care debacle.

Get engaged and stay engaged! While the possible future is still very discouraging, we must not give into these bad public policies even in these difficult times. We need to continue to be voices for human dignity and personal responsibility and community involvement. It is not the job of the government to take care of the people. It is the job of the people to take care of the people and to oversee the government.

Tell the story of the consequences of this behavior to anyone who will listen and constantly and persistently to the media, but also tell the unwanted and unsavory tale of why there are so many cuts. Tell the story of the unfettered spending, borrowing, and the sale of America to the highest bidder. If this administration were a man, he would be in prison for fraud, conspiracy, and then be committed for insanity.

Don’t let any opportunity pass without sharing the story, the story of the runaway government that is supposed to serve you, the agency impacts, the layoffs, and the pain and suffering caused by the irresponsible administration.

If the consequences are invisible, the general public will not know or understand the great disservice of these cuts to our lives. The government wants these sacrifices to be as gradual and as transparent as possible so that when we realize what has happened, it will be too late to stop them. Take a lesson from the Soviet Union. After 72 years, their failed government destroyed their society, collapsed their military through the same tactics that have been underway here for 30 years, ruined their economy, lost all international friends, and sold out their reputation as a super-power only to be left a smoldering wreck of a nation, and 30 years after the so-called collapse of their government they are not through, yet.

Be a voice of reason and good economic sense in the midst of the root cause of this abomination. Write your legislators – thank those who stood up for common sense, integrity, and personal responsibility. Hold those legislators accountable who voted for Obamacare, the stimulus, the government buy-out of big business, and all the foreign loans. Let them know your disappointment.

Abraham Lincoln said 2 very important things. 1) “Just because it's legal doesn't make it right.” and 2) “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.” It will if we don't stop it from its present course.