I believe toys come to life when I leave the room. I believe Lebron James cares about his fans. And I believe in Willy Wonka. But, recently, I've stopped believing in politicians. Yes, there are some individual politicians who are not corrupt, but as a whole, I have given up defending the people who have been elected to run our Country.
Not believing in politicians had led me to become numb to almost every seemingly important political news story. And more often than not, I was right to feel indifferent. Anything I wrote about Rick Perry soaring in the polls last month would have been relevant for all of two weeks. And if I wrote about having hope that Obama's jobs bill could spur bipartisanship after watching his speech in front of congress, not only would I look naïve, but also I would quickly be proven incorrect.
And so, I tuned out. Not in the sense that I stopped reading the newspaper or watching the news, but because I had been disenchanted so many times, I forced myself to remain distant from day-to-day hopeful political stories. Stories that heated up for a week or two and were forgotten about and drowned out by other seemingly important issues.
I haven't been writing articles these last few months because I stopped believing. Because I thought it would be useless to write about something I can't change. But I've been realizing that if everyone decided to feel the same way as I do and everyone became indifferent, nothing would change. Reading Emerson and Thoreau and studying Transcendentalist thinking in school has given me hope. There is power in the individual. And everyone who is mad at Washington can and should voice their concerns: not just in the form of mass protests on Wall Street, but by doing something concrete. By writing to politicians. By starting a charity to accomplish what government has not been able to. By telling others how you feel. If you feel passionately about something, there are undoubtedly others who feel the same way and are too embarrassed to say so or have just given up trying. So do a favor to yourself and to other disenchanted Americans and stay engaged.