In my life, thus far, I have had the opportunity to work in some pretty interesting jobs. I have been a soldier, a salesman, and a government employee. I went back to school and got a Masters degree and had the chance to do some teaching on the college level. I enjoyed the teaching very much. There are few things more enjoyable than working with people who really want to learn. I taught U.S. Government and I also taught a course in Sustainability.

When I was teaching the big thing I wanted my students to leave my class with was the ability to become informed, educated and responsible voters. My goal was not to push my political views on them. My goal was always for them to thoughtfully develop their own views and have the tools to see through all the spin to the heart of an issue.

As I was discussing this one day with a Professor who I had a fair amount of respect for, I was stunned when he took exception to my goal of teaching people how to think. He emphatically informed me that my job was not to teach students how to think but what to think. His point of view was that it was the job of academia to implant a political viewpoint into the minds of our students.

Needless to say I had a problem with his point of view and expressed to him in a way that ensures I will not be asked to come teach in his department in the near future. I have also seen the results of his teaching philosophy in the headlines today. With the economic troubles we are facing I keep hearing people talk about how much they hated politicians and using “Wall Street” as the latest scapegoat.

I started seeing the idea of voting out everyone who is currently in office. Just get them all out and start over. There is something to this idea. However, I am not big on throwing out the baby with the bath water. As I have lectured to my students and written in blogs it is our responsibility to be educated about what is going on with our elected representatives. It is our responsibility to hold them accountable for what they do. It is our tragic mistake to be willing to “throw the bums out” when in all honesty most of the voting public can not even tell you what their elected officials have done or not done. Or for that matter who their elected officials are. Along with the need for increased education in the realms of science and math we are in desperate need of education in the rolls and rules of government. Often times I hear people discussing what they think our government should be doing. Unfortunately those same people have very little real knowledge of what our government was designed to do. And why the Constitution of the US has helped keep this representative republic strong and relevant over the last 200 plus years.

When the general populace can only be spurred to pay attention, much less take action; by the near collapse of our economic system, we have a problem. The global problems we face now are dire. They take strong leadership and an ability to make the general populace swallow a bitter pill. We the people cannot just sit around and wait for congress to act. We the people cannot sit back and wait for information to be spoon-fed to us through our preferred media outlet. We the people need to get off our collective ass and take responsibility for our governments actions. We the people better start taking the words “for the people, by the people and of the people” seriously. Your knowledge is your responsibility. Your elected officials are your responsibility. Guess what your health care and pension plan and mortgage are your responsibility. It is time we started acting like it.