We the people NEED to be involved

Average American Tells Why We All Should Participate In Political System: A True Patriot

Op-Ed by Nancy Cahalan

I never saw myself as someone who would run for an elected office. My older daughter has dreams of running for president one day and I always thought she would be the first in our family with her name on a ballot for election. The most I was involved in politics was in voting. I have never worked for a particular campaign nor have I donated to one. It wasn't that there were not candidates or issues that did not grab my attention, becoming more involved was just not something that I felt called to do.

Last Spring, someone in my church who is active in our county Republican party asked me if I would be interested in being a precinct committeeman. Not really knowing what that was, I said sure. A short while later, I got a letter saying that I had been appointed as the precinct committeeman for my voting precinct.

I began educating myself on just exactly what a precinct committeeman is. I must admit that the first article I came across on the Internet threw me for a loop. It was titled "The Most Powerful Office In The World Is NOT The President of the United States": (http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/brochures/precinct-committman.shtml)

I will admit I was doubtful that an elected office--about which I had never heard--could be the most powerful in the world. I am still not totally convinced that precinct committeeman is the MOST powerful, but there is power there that many people probably don't realize because, like me, they have never heard of the office--nor do they know anything about it.

What has compelled me to actually run for the office in the February 2010 elections is multifaceted. One reason is what is happening at the federal level in our country right now. There are bills being passed and signed that are not being read by those who are paid by us to do so. The provisions included in those bills are not in line with what is contained in our U.S. Constitution and I object to that greatly.

Another reason is the Republican Party is a mess. In our state (Illinois) and in our nation, there are so many who have been elected because they claimed the "R" after their names and yet I find it hard to discern why they claim the "R". The votes they cast, the issues they support, the speeches they give are not in line with my understanding of what the Republican Party has as its values and ideals. The Bush administration gave us the deficit with which President Barack Obama began. While I do know Obama has tremendously increased that deficit, he did inherit a huge debt from a Republican president and a Republican majority in Congress. U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter at least was honest enough to admit his affinities were more in line with the Democratic Party than the GOP and stopped pretending to be a Republican. I wish more of those who are referred to as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) would do the same.

Finally, I was brought up believing if you are not part of the solution, you are a part of the problem and just sitting around complaining is not the way to actually get things changed. Since I am already the precinct committeeman for my precinct, I intend to hold onto that position and do what I can from there to bring about the changes that I can.

Becoming a precinct committeeman is one of the easiest things that one can do. It does take time, but not much money. You have to get the appropriate paperwork from your county clerk, get the requisite signatures on the petition to get your name on the ballot, and then 'campaign' as you wish. If you do not know anything or very little about the office, educate yourself. If you don't feel called to run, maybe you know someone else who you can encourage to do so. With all the talk about grassroots movements, here is the grassroots of any political party.

Precinct committeemen do have an impact on their respective parties from the ground up--whether you run, encourage someone else to run or not. Please don't just sit back. Truly our country--as it was intended to be--and, more importantly, our freedoms are at stake. If we do nothing, we will wake up one morning to find we are living in a country we do not want. If I am accused of fear mongering, so be it. The stakes are high and we need to be aware and we need to fight back.