Category: Sunshine

I get it. I know we’re all busy and trying to save time by reaching out to our elected officials through some mostly impersonal methods, but those paths are full, literally full to the breaking point, with content feeders.

Is it any wonder your messages aren’t getting through?

So try this, instead.

Find a local government meeting, take your message and make it really personal and relevant to the elected officials at that meeting, and read your letter to them.

When you are done, ask them how they are acting to correct the issues you raise.

Record that speech, if you can.

I have these steps written out in more detail here, but if we all do this at every meeting and at all levels of government, your messages will get through.

They have to.

You are a voter, probably representing many other voters. Voters change elections when officials don’t act on their constituents’ wishes. They know that.

The people are the government and the officials only our representatives. We’re in charge, and sometimes we have to remind them of that.

[And always check the comments to these posts. Others are learning and sharing!]

There’s an idea that your vote is your voice, and this may sound very scary, but that’s not going to be true if the coup continues. Your vote won’t matter if the ability to vote is taken away.

Our VOICE is our voice, and we need to let the entire political structure know what you think.

That’s where engaging the community and government through 1000s of open mics can be used to get action against bigotry, lies, and illegal acts; and that’s where operationsunshine.info can help.

The people have a voice! We cannot be muzzled!

In every community, there is a need for a small number of people to gather the issues that are most impacting your local residents and to build the messages that need to be delivered to the local, county, district, or state officials.

Messages need to be delivered to every level of government, especially to Republicans, so that they carry the message further up their network that these illegal or unauthorized actions by the federal government are having a real impact on their constituents and will have a even greater impact in future elections.

Every small community can have one or two people who are looking for the issues that most impact their community and who can connect those people and issues with the local elected officials that need to understand and can act on the impacts.

If you need help to figure out how to find issues or find people impacted by those issues, please comment anywhere and we can find help.

Together, we can fight back!

Every elected official needs to be asked the same or similar basic questions:

How are you connecting with the local residents who are most directly affected by these new Executive Orders and the actions of unlawful organizations like DOGE?

Are you attending and promoting attendance at area public meetings to speak out about these issues and their direct impact on our community, district, and state?

What are the recent issues that you see having the greatest impact on our community or across the state, and what is the message you want us to send to Republican elected officials so that they will drive responsibility, transparency, and accountability back into our system of federal government?

Are you aware of our Sunshine laws and how they can be used to support public engagement in the legislative process, including speaking out at local events and driving transparency into government oversight?

What is your staff doing to facilitate public awareness of the impacts of these Executive Orders and other unlawful acts?

What are YOU doing to educate your constituents on the workings of government and how to ensure that their rights and the rule of law is protected in America?

Got other questions? Add them to the comments!

Welcome to my site. I have a fairly long history in local government and community service, extending back to the early 90s, pre-internet. My technical background, a side interest in computers, and having parents who were strong volunteers brought me to embrace the internet and engaging others through it when it served a public purpose.

I’ve created a local government website, led local sports clubs, and served as a little league umpire, a school board VP, and I ran for state office (unsuccessfully).

All of this, and especially the school board service, taught me that we have to bring transparency and engagement to every governmental body that effects our lives. For government to work for the people, the people need to know what is going on in government. We need to engage them on issues we care about.

SO, I hope you will use the resources in this part of the website to engage your local government effectively. They need to know that you are who they serve and to be continuously reminded that you are in charge of how government works. Elected leaders are there to serve the public, not the other way around. And these leaders need to feel the heat when they are veering off of the path that serves their constituents.

A fundamental part of engaging government is to attend their meetings, ask questions about how they are conducting the operations under their purview, and forcing them to explain their decisions and actions in a way that the public can understand.

In most government activities, there are public meetings, and most are required to allow for public comment. These public comment periods are your change, and indeed your obligation, to engage government on matters that are both relevant to the body and that you believe reflect on issues of importance to the community.

Over the last 50 years or more, we have suffered a significant decline in the amount of education being provided to our students and our general population about how things actually work to keep us safe, keep us fed, keep us sheltered, and provide opportunity.

This has led to a steady effort to destroy our democracy because an uninformed citizenry cannot command the necessary and obligatory control over their leaders. And when those leaders lack control, they choose increasingly self-serving actions.

Engagement is fundamental to rebuilding this awareness and control. I hope you will join in to engage government to make them demonstrate how things work, why, and help others to get involved and share their voices.

And in these days when certain elected and unelected individuals are trying to tear our democracy apart, there is no time to waste in getting informed, engaging government, and helping others to do so.

Thank you for visiting.

Let’s bring the heat.

Comments welcomed.