Get involved in today's important issues

We're at a critical time. The only way to get meaningful legislation passed at the state and federal level is if we are making our voices heard.

We need to support politicians that will work for our interests by making community college tuition free, reducing the cost of college tuition to students, reducing interest rates for college loans and allowing prior loans to be renegotiated at a rate government provides to banks, among other things.

We need to reclaim the Constitution and get money out of politics and require all donors to disclose their political spending. The notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.

It is key that core values of equal voice and democratic accountability be given to all citizens. We need to take back our democracy. We are a nation "of the people", by the people", "for the people" not an Oligarchy, run by a small group of wealthy people.

The problem, of course, is that the same people who benefit from money in politics are pulling the strings right now. The fact that corporations that receive government contracts can secretly funnel untold sums to help elect the same lawmakers who are responsible for awarding those same government contracts is a scandal.

Using tax loopholes, corporations and wealthy Americans shift jobs and profits overseas. Politicians are reducing aid to public schools, blocking people from Medicaid, eliminating tax credits that primarily benefit low- and middle-income families, while expanding government subsidies to oil and gas companies, privatizing prisons and for-profit colleges, and ensuring there are not enough regulations on Wall Street, banks and payday loan companies.

Now is the time. Now, it's up to you. You need to get involved. It's your future.

Joan Brody

Schaumburg