Here’s what’s on my mind. Many of us care deeply about social and political issues, and it does feel good to clarify each other’s thoughts here on FB, but it doesn’t change politicians views. I’ve ranted about U.S. warmongering online for almost a decade, and it hasn’t changed America’s obsession with war as the first tool of choice for attempting to “fix” social conflict.

Last week, I got a robocall from a voice that told me that Obamacare is going to destroy the United States. I don’t believe that. I also believe that Obamacare is full of flaws (I think the U.S. should guarantee ALL citizens a reasonable minimum level of health care doing an end-around private insurers, based on what is sustainable in terms of the overall budget–I would much rather prefer Medicare for all to Obamacare).

This robocall said to “Hit 1, to be transferred to Senator Blunt.” I hit 1. A man from Roy Blunt’s office answered the call and proceeded to horribly misrepresent several aspects of Obamacare. He proceed to tell me that his poll of choice showed that people from Missouri are heavily against the things offered by Obamacare. I told him that I didn’t trust the methodology and that I know 1,000 people who are not against the things offered by Obamacare. He tried to get off the phone. I challenged him to stay on the phone. I asked him whether there weren’t SOME decent aspects of Obamacare, such as eliminating exclusions for pre-existing conditions. He hemmed and hawed. He told me that costs will go up under Obamacare. I responded, “Costs for health insurance rose throughout the 8 years of George W. Bush. They go up regardless of who is the President.” I kept this twerp on the phone for 5 painful minutes (painful for both of us), and challenged Senator Blunt to do SOMETHING so that in a nation that has more resources than most, we don’t have people dying for lack of medical treatment. He actually seemed to be agreeing with me a bit at the end.

We hung up. Today I saw that Roy Blunt, a conservative, announced that it was a mistake to shut down the government over Obamacare. I’m not claiming that I changed Blunt’s mind. But I’ve often heard from insiders that politicians do pay some attention to well-informed respectful citizens calling them on the PHONE.

Therefore, I would raise this challenge. All of us who believe that America has terrible priorities should make a call or two to the office of our high ranking politicians. They have people taking those calls. Human beings, who just might relay their frustration to the politicians so that big corrupting corporate money and lobbyists aren’t the only voices they hear. God knows that you’ll never get a private appointment with members of Congress. You don’t have nearly enough money for that. But you can make noise. All of us together can make LOTS of noise. As imperfect as this is, let’s make that noise. Let these reps know that we do give a damn, and that we ARE willing to forego watching a few minutes of “The Voice” or a sporting event once just to map a call we will make the following day. Please consider committing to making one or two phone calls per week (or more). It only takes a couple minutes to call up and voice your opinion. It’s a direct (though imperfect) link to our representatives, and they desperately need to hear our static–I think that they think we don’t care, and that we agree with the priorities they are hearing from lobbyists. I’ve been making a call about once a month, but I’m going to ramp it up. As gratifying as it is to complain on FB (which I do far too much), it’s not getting the job done. Thanks for trudging through this long post.