Today has been a day...

Today has been...a day. Yeah. That's the best way to describe it. Not a good day, not a bad day, just a day. Good things happened and things that make my blood boil happened.

Good things:

1. My friend introduced me to this game site called OMGPop that has a game called Letterblox. I've only known of it's existence since this morning. I love it...darn near close to addicted. It will be the object of my counter productivity in the future.

2. I found a stack of construction paper and card-stock paper while I was cleaning. Yippee.

Thing things:

Uhm. I played with a Nook on display today at Barnes and Noble. It was nice. It didn't feel like I was reading on a screen, like I thought it would (and reading on a computer screen hurts my eyes), it was easy to use and I've heard that some textbooks are becoming available for use on the Nooks. I find myself legitimately wanting one, as opposed to a few blog posts ago where I was listing all the reasons why I didn't want to cave and get one.

Things that make my blood boil:

This. Let me preface by saying that the point of me posting the link to this story is NOT to call attention to the fact that I don't agree with this particular bill's passage into law, or to start a debate about whether or not people should be allowed to carry guns into bars, like the law now allows. The point is to address an issue: our elected officials, that we elect to be our voice in the legislature and represent us, are not truly representing the views of their constituents.

To quote the Tennessean, "Eighty two percent of Democrats and 71 percent of independents were opposed to the gun law, but a majority of Republicans, 59 percent, were against it as well." WHAT THE CRAP?! That many people were against it, yet our state legislature still pushed for it. Our governor was more of a voice for residents of Tennessee when he vetoed the bill than district representatives or state senators were! Even then, Bredesen vetoed it and the state legislature overwrote his veto. Barely, but still an overwrite is an overwrite.

I'm sorry, but what happened to "government of the people, by the people, for the people?" Abraham Lincoln said that "Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."

This really bothers and concerns me. A lot. If this is happening on the state level, what's happening on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC? Are those representatives and senators truly being a voice for their constituents back home? Or are they pushing their own agendas and brushing off what their constituents think and feel?

Sometimes I think that people are afraid to speak up...or they forget that they CAN speak up when their elected representative/senator does something that they don't agree with. I think people sometimes forget that they can write letters and make phone calls to make sure that their voice is heard. SPEAK UP PEOPLE. Isn't that our job? To quote Abraham Lincoln again, from his first inaugural speech in 1861, "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."

I have the urge to write heated letters, much like this blog post, to every person that represents me in politics. State representatives. State senators. My congresswoman. The 2 US Senators for Tennessee. I want to make sure my voice is being heard. Is yours?