“Fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice. Shame on me.”

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–Chinese Proverb.

Between the fearful and the apathetic, enough of our population fully allows our elected government to determine whom should be accountable and to what level without questioning it.

There are massive double standards which we allow ourselves to believe are either representation of the majority or in our own best interest.

We tolerate a media that does not inform us but encourages us to become and stay narrow minded. We even support them for misrepresenting facts, taking things out of context, or simply ignoring and not reporting anything that is not supportive of the beliefs that they are espousing.

We do not insist that a full diversity of ideas and thoughts are represented in the agencies responsible for creating standards and results that lead to the making of laws.

We allow ourselves to be fed statistical “data” and scientific “evidence” which is created, funded and presented by organizations with a vested interest in the results.

Once in awhile, we shake ourselves out of our apathy and risk challenging the system and vote for someone with a message of change. If they are elected, we resume our lives and fail forget to make them accountable for their promises. We don’t insist that they clearly show us the evidence of their attempts to make the changes they promised.

We allow elected officials to keep the legislative activities mired in multi-part legislation that easily hides what they don’t want us to see, including inappropriate spending, self-serving regulations, and unpopular amendments for which they do not want to be held accountable.

Why do we allow ourselves to repeatedly be disappointed and hoodwinked by our politicians, media, government and corporate leaders? Because too many of us are uninvolved as long as the pain and frustration level in our personal lives is acceptable. As long as we can blame instead of accept responsibility and live within our comfort zone, why bother?

Are the laws, the placements of powerful officials and decisions about how monies are spent and who gets held accountable for our benefit? Or for the wealthy or those who can deliver the greatest number of votes? If you can afford to make substantial contributions to campaigns, you get more influence and more access. If you can afford to underwrite a study, you can make sure it says what you want it to say. If you are the largest donor to a non-profit organization, it can advocate ideas that benefit you.

You would think our declining educational standards (1 out of every seven Americans are functionally illiterate, and our math and science scores are at an all time low), our imploding economy, our failing infrastructure would merit our interest. You would expect that with the largest numbers of bankruptcies, failing companies, foreclosures and incidents of child and elder abuse would get our attention. Well it has. Isn’t it sad, though, that it had to get this bad before we could convince people that there needed to be change?

The real question at the end of the day is if we will hold the people who have promised change accountable. Will we insist on substantive changes? It is time for a full and equitable representation of all Americans in all the halls of power.

Here are some questions for you to ponder

Why can’t legislation be transparent and each piece only represent one thing?

Why are the agencies that decide what is safe for the American public not held to any standards? For example, Ephedra was taken off the market due to 113 deaths from people who were clearly misusing it and yet using Ritalin “correctly,” with over 200 deaths, mostly children, is fully supported by the FDA.

If the FDA wants to examine if herbs should be classified as food or drugs for regulatory purposes, why are there no trained naturopaths involved in the process but only medical doctors, who have no training in herbs?

With home-schooling and alternative education at an all time high, how much representation do they have in decisions made by the Department of Education?

Does the Department of Health and Human Services give as much access and consideration to alternative practitioners as to the AMA? Is there a full representation of this largest growing segment of health at all?

You get the idea. So what are you going do?

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