If we see something going wrong in the world, when bad things happen, we have two choices….we can either do something about it or do nothing. When we choose to do nothing, and those bad things continue to happen after we’ve made that choice to do nothing, then those bad things continue to happen because of us to some degree. At that point, the blood is on all of our hands, because you know what happens if you don’t try? Nothing.
I grew up as a kid reading the newspaper every day, interested in domestic and world affairs, loved history and social studies in school, majored in political science, economics, and international affairs in college. When I was in my early 20’s I even met a former president and had a front row seat to lots of world leaders, and have continued to stay tuned into what goes on in the world and at home on a daily basis for the last 20+ years.
Yet instead of pursuing a career in government and politics and following my interests and passions because I saw what was wrong and needed to be fixed, I made a conscious choice to NOT get involved and instead focus on my own personal life. I was turned off by the negativity, divisiveness, pettiness, and malicious ways of both parties and felt it was almost hopeless to even try.
I was just one person trying to act like an adult between two squabbling child-like parties and I convinced myself I was smallish to the cause of ending the two party system and all of its financial backing. I rationalized my decision and chose to hide behind the old saying that “if you want to change the world, go home and love your family” instead of trying to be the change I wished to see in this world. While I do not regret the life I have chosen, I too have had blood on my hands for the last 25+ years. But no longer.
It is perhaps cliché, but once you have a child it most definitely changes you in lots of ways. One big way is that I have a renewed passion and desire to want to do everything I can to fix the problems in this world so that my daughter’s generation does not have to.
I want my generation to leave her generation a country and a world better off than the one that was left to my generation. I want her to know as she gets older and I have to explain the world to her and how it works or doesn’t work, that her Daddy did everything he could to fix the problems he is having to tell her about. I want to be able to look her in the eye and be able to tell her that I didn’t just sit back and watch it all unfold when maybe I could have helped.
There is a myth that has been perpetuated for far too long that revolutions never come from the political center, that those of us that are ‘middle of the road’ are somehow incapable of being passionate enough to truly have our voices be heard, and even if we do manage to speak up, we cannot maintain it for very long, so for that we are relegated to the backseat, an afterthought for each party to consider only when they need enough votes to beat the other guy. I don’t know about you, but my passion has always been there, laying dormant like a volcano, waiting for a better time, but like the Katy Perry song “Roar”, I will not be silent any longer.
I believe the pen is mightier than the sword, and this labor of love is a non-violent “call to arms” for America’s moderates and political center. We are all born Americans. We are not born as Democrats or Republicans. Whether we are born citizens or naturalized, we should not have to ever pick a side and stick to that side for all time. As Americans we should be able to get the best of both.
Perry Waag 