Do Reps Rep?

I bet at least once your mother (or some other figure of importance) once mentioned the adage "In causal conversation never mention religion or politics." Well, since this isn't casual conversation I'm gonna be talking politics. This will deal with two things: how our representatives in the House represent us and the issue of the direct election of Senators.

First-the Congressmen, because we need to lay a foundation for the second point I wanted to make.

The point of U.S. Congressmen is to directly represent the people, in small groups. This means you should be able to walk up to your congressman, give him a piece of your mind and return to your business. However, it is not like that nowadays. Members of the House of Representatives represent approximately 600,000 people each. Some more, some less depending on district size and "at large" reps such as in Vermont, Wyoming and Rhode Island. This isn't what the framers of the constitution had in mind. They wanted the representative to be humble people who do their civic duty then return to normal life. They are now political giants. The appeal of power was too great.

We now have Career Politicians as our representatives. These incumbents, through a variety of factors beat out challengers almost 90% of the time and continue to reign over their constituents. This is mainly in part to the allure of power that comes with being a rep. Even though you're elected to a 2 year term, you still have a plethora of constituents who are able to keep you in office. The allure of money and prestige has kept many of these men and women in office for term after term after term. This has ruined the very essence of being a representative: a self made man or woman who serves for a few terms than returns to normal life.

Does this seem right to anyone? It surely doesn't to me. Wouldn't you much rather have your representative be someone you've actually meet more than one. I don't say you need to know the person, but more visibility would be nice when it comes to someone making big federal decisions that affect your very life.

Now for something else: the direct election of U.S. Senators.

At the turn of the century Progressivism was sweeping the nation. It was a great thing for the most part, but a big error was passing the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment made it so U.S. Senators would be elected by popular vote of the whole state. You know I was talking about the lack of visibility with reps? Yeah, this is even worse.

Think about it. In the state of Massachusetts there are approximately 6 million people. Those 6 million people get to pick two of their own to be senators. Chances are they've never meet these people, they just hear their belifs on the news. This is very dangerous. These people have a huge responsibility to the state at large, but no accountability to individual people. If the method had stayed the same, we would have less of a problem with career senators making truckloads of money, manipulating the population and staying in office.

This is what used to happen. Your state's legislature would choose senators. Thats right, the people who represent the two or three towns around you would pick who was your senator. Doesn't this make a whole lot more sense? It seems to me that you would want someone from your community choosing the big wigs in Washington. They would have more accountability to the constituents, therefore the representatives would be more careful in who they choose, and a better stock of senators would currently be sitting in the chambers in the capitol building.

All and all, I blame people who took reform a little too far. The Progressive Era was fantastic for the country, but when people start steamrolling through reform, things like this happens. People take things a little too far and then we end up with senators serving for longer than my parents have been around.

I bet I'm gonna get some flack from this...so bring it on ;)

Jonestown Massacre. Murder, NOT Suicide

Ahhh, the Jonestown Massacre. Not really one of the most cheerful moments in our nation's history, but one that I believe should be talked about. Its an event that needs a lot of explaining too.

With all of this talk about one of the Manson Family murderer's up for parole, people have been talking more about cults, and how dangerous they can be. Yes, cults can be dangerous, but not all the people in them are psycho's that shave their heads and dance around airports with tambourines. No, sometimes, as in Jonestown, these people were manipulated by a charismatic leader and then forced to do heinous things that are often misunderstood. This brings me to what this post was actually about.

In 1974 the People's Temple lead by leader Jim Jones had a plan. This plan was to build a Christian utopia far away from the prying eyes of people who had challenged the cult. Actually, Jim Jones the leader was crazy and needed to run away and take his flock with him: but this post isn't about that. So, with some help from the government of Guyana, they were able to set up a colony on about 3,800 acres of land. The colony started off small, with approximately 50 members in 1977; this number rose to just under 1000 at its height in 1978. Then things started to get rough....

Jones grew increasingly paranoid. He feared that people would leave his colony and that he would loose power. He started forcing people to work all day on a poor diet due to the terrible soil on which the commune was built. This, coupled with isolation from the outside started to drive the colonists to the breaking point. They no longer loved their leader, but feared him and his armed guards that patrolled the grounds, making sure nobody would escape. On top of all this Jones would stage mock suicides on various days at night. These were to prepare the colony for immediate mass suicide if it was to be necessary.

Then, a real problem happened for Jones. In November of 1978, congressman Leo Ryan went to investigate alligations of abuse at the colony on behalf of member's families. When he got there, he found the people seemingly brainwashed, except for a few who wanted to leave. So, the congressman decided to bring some of the people back to the States with him. This did not bode over well with Jones and he had Congressman Ryan assassinated. Then, he called one of his famous "White Nights" or suicide drills. However, unlike the ones in the past this one was real. Jones' guards brewed up large batches of Flavor Aid with poison in them and made the colonists drink them. As a result almost every member of the colony died except for a few who hid under their beds in their cabins.

This is where things get interesting. Now that you have the back story, I have an actual point I want to make. And it is this....

The colonists didn't drink the poison willingly! This is a HUGE misconception on the part of many, and its truly important to understand. People were forced to drink this poison, and if they didn't, they would be shot. Children had the poison squirted into their mouths while being restrained. THIS WAS NOT A SUICIDE. People need to understand that when a manipulative leader comes along, people follow and it can have drastic consequences. These people thought they were going away to have a better, happier future, but in fact they were murdered. Anyone who believes that these people were a bunch of crazies is truly misinformed. These people had no choice but to die, and Jim Jones is the real evil one in this situation.

So, I want to send out a message and a warning to everyone. Cults are dangerous, and so are the charismatic leaders they follow. Many people in many types of cult suicides do not choose to do this, they are usually murdered. That is what people need to understand. Don't just look at something like this next time you see it on the news and thing "Bah! what a bunch of crazies." NO, these people are decent human beings who have just been manipulated, they are not truly at fault. Those who manipulate them are to blame.

I also want to say rest in peace to the 909 People's Temple member's who were killed and to Leo Ryan.

So please, I want to hear your thoughts on this. Its an important issue that many people happen to overlook.