We don't listen enough to the little people. You know, those unnoticed, quiet folks who go about their day to day without ramming an opinion or a sound bite down our throats from a cable news program. I'm talking about the bagboy at grocery store, the old man in the barber shop, the woman who cuts your hair or the nurse that changes your IV bag. They don't have the time to pontificate their beliefs for all to analyze because they're too busy living, working and contributing in their own way. Perhaps they don't have the education that the pundits do but it doesn't make what they have to say any less important. In fact, I think the unvarnished, unspun opinions are far more valuable than those of talking heads who are paid to do nothing other than fight with each other. Those of us who work for a living, we don't have the time to engage in meaningless skirmishes over things that will have little, if any effect on our day to day lives.
How about this idea for a TV news talk show? Instead of bringing in supposed experts on a political matter, bring in randomly selected people off the street, skip the sound bites, and engage in a meaningful discussion on how the issue effects them personally. The guest commentators don't have to worry about where their next paycheck is coming from or whether their insurance company is going to cover the cost of cancer treatment.
It's easy to come up with overly sophisticated arguments on an issue and quote obscure references when you get paid to do nothing but that all day long. That's not who I want to hear from. The people who are affected by the issue, that's who needs to be in front of the camera in the guest chair, not some narcissistic professional commentator. I don't want to hear the opinion of some corporate executive who has no other interest other than keeping his board of directors happy and has no idea what is like to work on the bottom rungs of the ladder. Let's hear about it from the people on the front line, not those from the boardroom. If you want to have a legitimate opinion on say, immigrant labor, work for a week in the fields with them before coming on a show and telling everyone what you think. It's hard to comment on the plight of the poor without having ever been there yourself.
I can tell you that there are millions of reasonable voices out there but we can't hear them over the cacophony of the talking heads.
Not too bad of an idea, but the trouble is that most folks are not paying attention enough to have an idea of the implications of what is going on. This why Congress can slip in their Ear Marks, why the Executive Branch can issue an Executive Order. The truth is, they could care less what we say out side of the Ballot Box, and they only hear landslides then. They hear us really well, when they have found themselves unemployed.
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