RE: Democracy?

["Hegge, Roy" <Roy_Hegge@adc.com>]

How about referendum and recall?  I wish that we had these in Minnesota.   How about something similar on a federal level.
How about no closed sessions for our elected officials?
How about really posting bills and proposed modfications to public places (web sites) prior to consideration within Congress?

A comment that I have heard from both Henry Hyde and Orrin Hatch (and I'm sure others on the Hill) during this recent turmoil
goes something like this (I have to paraphrase because I cannot remember the exact words) 'We are not here to be swayed by
public sentiment (the will of the people), we have a higher calling to the law of the land.'  i.e. we are no longer representatives 
but rather rulers.

Roy Hegge

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Greg Peisert [SMTP:gpeisert@jamesgregory.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, February 04, 1999 10:31 AM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list NOPRIVACY
> Subject:	RE: Democracy?  
> 
> So, what would you advocate as an alternative?
> 
> --Greg P.
> 
> On Thursday, February 04, 1999 8:10 AM, Margaret Tarbet [SMTP:tarbet@swaa.com] wrote:
> > "But what about voting and elections? Civil disobedience-we don't
> > need that much of it, we are told, because we can go through the
> > electoral system. And by now we should have learned, but maybe we
> > haven't, for we grew up with the notion that the voting booth is a
> > sacred place, almost like a confessional. You walk into the voting
> > booth and you come out and they snap your picture and then put it in
> > the papers with a beatific smile on your face. You've just voted;
> > that is democracy. But if you even read what the political
> > scientists say-although who can?-about the voting process, you find
> > that the voting process is a sham. Totalitarian states love voting.
> > You get people to the polls and they register their approval. I know
> > there is a difference-they have one party and we have two parties.
> > We have one more party than they have, you see. "
> > 
> > -- Howard Zinn, teacher
> > "Civil Obedience"
> > http://www.infoasis.com/people/stevetwt/Zinn/
> > 
> > 
> > Zinn strikes right to the heart of our privacy problems, i think:
> > we expect our 'elected representatives' to take care of our needs
> > for things like privacy, but they don't.   They take care of other
> > people's desires to invade and exploit our privacy, because those
> > other people count (money, generally) and we don't.