Sixfoot6.com - Putting Stuff Away.

I regularly listen to the KCRW World News stream, which includes BBC World Service broadcasts. And lately, as I listen to the recent coverage of Tony Blair's assertive statements to Parliament in the wake of Hutton's Report, I keep coming back to the same thought: I love the way MPs yell and grumble and voice their opinions during Parliament sessions.

During State of the Union addresses—and most Congressional footage I've ever seen—our representatives seem to have only four options for expressing their feedback: clapping, not clapping, standing and clapping... or emitting a quiet, subdued murmur. Beyond that, we see Ted Kennedy shaking his head, we see Hilary blankly clapping like she's just going through the motions. Later, the responses of Senators and Reps get filtered and spun through sporadic media coverage.

If our legislators would be more willing to vocalize their dissent and their support in the midst of the legislative process, in front of the media, then maybe their fearless outspokenness would trickle down through the ranks of the citizens they claim to represent. Though on the surface their restraint may seem more civilized, it in fact encourages (and stems from) a fear of real accountability. I'm all for compromise, but it's a shame that our politicians are so often afraid of speaking their mind out of fear that they'll offend some of their constituents. That kind of fear narrows debate, discourages innovative opinions and solutions, and anestitizes the public to a representative government that ends up seeming flat, distant, and at times irrelevant.

I say yell out loud and catch peoples' attention before we end up in a one party state. Fear is stupid.