Miner Queries: What kind of future will we write?

It’s late afternoon on Christmas Eve as I write this. I have a few presents to wrap, stockings to fill and cooking to do. And politics is the last thing I want to think about.
Yet yesterday in Red Oak, I experienced a moment of political hope.
That’s the morning Senator Bernie Sanders came to Red Oak, and I was heartened to see more than 250 people pack into the Red Coach Inn to hear him speak. Finally, some political action!
And that was a key piece of Senator Sanders’ message. This election is not about him – or the other candidates running. It’s about us, and if we want different government policies, it’s up to us to raise our voices, to march in the streets and to elect representatives who will work for us.
“I worry about the state of American democracy,” Senator Sanders said.  “This election ... is about getting people involved in the political process.”
And that what’s been missing – the American people.
For my entire adult life, I’ve watched us sit on the sidelines, limiting our involvement to elections, with declining voter turnout each cycle. Meanwhile, corporate media has been overtaken by a small group of corporate capitalists who feed us a daily diet of watered down “news” and morally bankrupt entertainment.
Consequently, we know less and less about who is in government, what they are doing and how we are affected. Most of us are too tired from working longer hours for less pay to notice or care about much outside our own front doors.
But after years of getting the shaft, it seems Americans are waking up to the reality that the corporate capitalist wizards behind the political curtains have bought our politicians and the electoral process. As Senator Sanders noted in response to a question about Congress, “Today’s Congress does not represent the American people.”
Remember our history? That’s how we got our start. The colonists weren’t
rebelling against taxation. They were rebelling against taxation without representation.
And that’s where we’re at today.
Senator Sanders advocates for a new American revolution, and that revolution is us, the people.
Instead of sitting on the bench waiting for a political superman to save us by magically instituting the policies we want, Sanders encourages voters to become politically active. First, we must educate ourselves and demand media give us real information about policies instead of personalities and polls.
Then we must raise our voices to demand representatives address the issues that affect our lives: jobs, healthcare, education, the environment and immigration, in addition to national security.  And we must demand legislation to get corporate dollars out of politics.
Senator Sanders has spent most of his life working for American voters. He knows what has to be done, and he knows we are the missing element. He’s willing to continue the fight as president, if we elect him. But he’s going to need us to work with him.
Are you ready to do your part?