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| Inner-city bus riders are the people whom elected officials need to meet. They have needs and desires as genuine as the people who can pay lobbyists to take officials to lunch. |
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| Campaign expenses have transformed legislators into telemarketers to the rich. To whom would you be more sensitive? To the poor who have no money? Or to the well-off with whom you speak daily? |
I didn’t want to wait for the
Tire repair and chose to ride
The train back downtown.
But the bus was leaving from
The station so I took it instead.
About a year or so back I
Proposed in a Facebook post
All elected officials should
Be required to use public
Transit at least once every
Month on an inner city line
Where they’d have the chance
To meet constituents who
Haven’t the time to visit
Washington congressional
Offices or the money to pay
Lobbyists to take their senators
Or representatives out to lunch
At some expensive, elegant
Restaurants to pitch them on
Their needs and desires.
Likewise these are people upon
Whom the elected would not
Be calling for contributions to
Keep them in office. No, these
Scraggly folks in torn shoes,
The families on the bus with
Children on their laps, would
Only be the people who might
Vote for them once every two,
Four, or six years, if they got
Off from work in time. I’ve
Read (and quite possibly you
Have too) that congressional
Representatives must spend
Close to a third of their day
Away from their offices,
Away from their work of
Governing, in a nearby
Non-federal building to make
Call after call like telemarketers
To people with money who
Have contributed in the past
To secure enough to cover
Not only their own Campaigns,
But also those of others in
Their party who may not have
As many wealthy constituents.
Of course if you talk pleadingly
Exclusively to the wealthy, you
Will become sensitized to their
Interests. Riding inner-city bus
Lines once a month may not be
Enough to counteract that sympathy
For the rich--maybe once a week.
c. J.S.Manista, 2016
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