Blame game: Look in the mirror

We The People like to complain about our government; how it operates, how it spends our tax dollars, what it does and is not doing correctly, how involved or uninvolved it is or wants to be in our daily lives. In general, we complain about most everything that is government.

We like to complain, but how many of us actually get involved and take responsibility for our government and its actions? After all, government starts and ends with We The People. We choose the individuals who will represent us at the township hall, village building, city hall, school board office, county courthouse, statehouse, governor's mansion, House of Representatives, Senate and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. That's where the White House is located. The President of the United States lives there during that individual's term of office.

Oh, and did I mention that we pay the taxes that fund the government?

March 6 was billed as Super Tuesday for the 2012 election cycle, with ten states holding primary elections and caucuses. But Super Tuesday turned out to be more like Tepid Tuesday at the voting booth, both in Ohio where I live and across the nation.

In the Buckeye State, only 25.35 percent of registered voters went to the polls last Tuesday. Folks in Williams County seemed to be more interested in the primary than anyone else in Ohio. Voter turnout there was a state-best 42.3 percent. The low water mark was reported in Tuscarawas County at 17.98 percent.

Now I know that, historically, even presidential primary elections generally attract fewer voters than the "big show" that's coming up in November. But 25 percent? We can, and should, do better than that, my fellow Ohioans and fellow Americans.

Those of us that say that our government, at all levels, is out of control, but don't even take the 15 or 20 minutes or so that it takes to vote really don't have a stump to stand on and shout from as it pertains to the discussion about government. In general, We The People don't really pay attention to what our government is doing, and there are a lot of politicians who like it that way.

Here's the formula: Uninformed electorate + Good election year media campaign = Reelection even if the politician has done a poor job in office.

We need to wake up, friends. Never in the history of the United States have We The People enjoyed such access to information about what our elected leaders are doing, or supposed to be doing, on our behalf. We're a mouse click away from accessing proposed legislation, how our representatives have voted on legislation, information about candidates, and exchanging information and ideas about all things government.

But how many of us actually take advantage of the many resources that are available to us that will help us keep tabs on what our elected leaders are doing? How many of us even care? By the looks of voter turnout, not too many. We'd rather wait to be spoon-fed by the media, whether it's from a liberal, conservative or whatever kind of viewpoint.

Good grief, we don't even go to local council, county commission or school board meetings, and those things are in our own backyards!

So if you don't like what your government is doing, friends, don't complain to me; just look in the mirror.