Political aspirant

If ever something needed to be demystified, it’s the function of our political offices and the jobs of the politicians who hold them. That’s not a knock on the men and women currently in office as much as it is on us, we the people, and our general understanding about the purpose of these honored seats—actually, strike that—it’s a knock on all of us including the gentlemen and women holding office. An order “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves” does not come at the hands of all powerful, mystical individuals, but rather by way of three branches of a representative government for all men created equal.

What began as an institution of “Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the Governed” has, in fact, become destructive of the very unalienable rights that impelled us to “institute a new government, on [the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], and [to organize] its Powers in such Form [that seems] most likely to effect [our] Safety and Happiness.” I contend that our safety is in fact at risk due to ongoing, antiquated practices in and around our current political institution and many of the personalities therein.

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience [has shown] that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.” We, for instance, are accustomed to letting it be and to bowing in the face of familial and other irrelevant bonds. That’s not to say that family is irrelevant on the whole, but rather that it cannot be the sole determinant for who we choose to hold a political seat. It’s all well and good to elect your family into office, but at the very least make sure that it’s one of your kin who understands the role and has the skill, intelligence, integrity, and fortitude to uphold it. Otherwise, “When a long train of Abuses, [corruption, waste and general failures], pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce [us] under absolute Despotism, it is [our] Right and [our] Duty to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for [our] future Security.”

The first question then ought to be, has the current makeup of and gamesmanship within our government subjected us to repeated injuries, leaving many of us with little to no recourse and/or representative voice for correcting them? “To prove this, let the facts be submitted to a candid” Commonwealth:

Our Leaders “have refused [their] Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good” and have instead pursued short-sighted, even detrimental Acts for personal gain;

Our Leaders have made people “dependent on [their] Will alone, for the tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries” and people are fearful of arbitrary and capricious actions against them;

Our Leaders “have erected a Multitude of new Offices [with redundant/questionable functions], and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People and eat out their substance”; and

Our Leaders have “called together Legislative [and other decision-making] Bodies at Places [unannounced to the general public and even other members of their own clubs] for the sole purpose of [effectuating laws and other such rules without public discourse].”

At multiple stages of the above, some have “Petitioned for redress in the most humble Terms: [Their] repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury.”

Therefore, the second question is how do we make the necessary changes? The answer could be two-fold: (1) that the insiders themselves might reflect on and realize that if we keep doing the same things over and over again, we will get the same results over and over again or (2) that more of the people looking in from the outside blaze new trails inward with innovative and proven methods to build a stronger, more sustainable future.

At least one novel political aspirant has come forward with eyes on the governor’s seat, arguably the position with the single greatest potential to effectuate immediate and significant change for better times. Still, I would caution that people not jump on the novelty wagon for novelty’s sake—everyone has ideas, but it’s the plan for implementing those ideas and a comprehensive analysis about the effects of those plans that we should be asking, nay…demanding to hear.

Nearly one quarter of a millennium ago, Thomas Jefferson, scripted much of the prose as quoted above—I’ve taken some liberties in re-arranging and adding to them for purposes of this article—you be the judge as to whether they still apply today in the context of our local politics. Without question though, the disability movement, like all other civil rights movements, is rooted in his timeless words that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” When the institution of our Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches loses sight of these core principles and affixes itself on anything but, then all people (disability or otherwise) are doomed to suffer the consequences.

“All I’m saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated, that somehow we’re caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality”—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. [I][B](Jim Rayphand)[/B]

Please call the NMPASI Office at (670) 235-7273/4 [voice] / 235-7275 [fax] / 235-7278 [tty] or contact us on-line via www.nmpasi.com for anything further on the disability movement and/or the rights of individuals with disabilities.[/I]