Personal thoughts about Citizenry

Covering then candidate for Oklahoma Governor Boren in 1974

After 30 years of covering state and national politics for ABC news I have seen the best and the worst of our political system. I started to see some legislators, who actually passed meaningful legislation, shared a level of maturity preceded by a path to political awareness. Today is the day that I want to put this before the few readers of my blog. These are what I consider the steps to political awareness.

1. "Evangelism", an intense desire to confront friends or any one that will listen to their new found magic bullet to solve all of our problems.

2. "Loyalty to an Ideology" regardless of the consequences.

3. "Disillusionment" those that are angry about our choices and are the types that have escalated their frustration to a higher level, a level that wants to tear our current political system apart.

4. "Apathy", complete disengagement from our political system.

5. "Issue Driven", those who have risen above the ego and ideological restrictive principals to make judgments' that are what is best for the good of our citizens and country. Those that can take the heat, face angry special interests and not bend to so called "unfounded truths."

These are just observations formed by years of standing on the floor of both house and senate sessions, hearings, committee meetings, citizens in protest or support of an issue and lastly lobbyists.