" Wake Up Call?"

I have been reminded in the past that polls can be manipulated to the purpose of whomever may be using them. This is a valid point and should be taken seriously. After all we don't want a twisted view of facts on any issue. When you see a poll result posted always read the whole posting and see if it says "this is not a scientific poll"; if it does be careful about putting too much stock in the results. For example, if I stood outside of "Giordano's" and took a poll about the best pizza in Chicago I'm pretty sure the results would favor "Giordano's", if I took the same poll outside of "Pizzeria Uno" the results would favor "Uno's". These are the results one would read in the restaurant section of the paper; not really scientific! The smartest thing to do is go there and try out the pizza yourself; I've had both, go to "Lou Malnati's" that's the best!

In today's paper I read an article stating that 80% of Americans have little confidence in the federal bureaucracy's ability to solve today's problems. This poll was released on Sunday by the Pew research center. I decided to do a little research of my own when I started to read this article. I thought it was best to practice what I preach so I looked up the Pew research center.

The Pew Research Center's motto is "for the people and the press",sounds pretty good. It was established in 1948 by Joseph Pew and his family, the owners of Sun Oil Company. It was originally a conservative advocate, but is now a centrist organization. It is based in Washington D.C. and has a reputation of fair mindedness and impartiality. After reading up on this organization I continued with the article in the paper.

The survey stated that just 22% of the people polled believe they can trust Washington. It states that the people now believe that politicians make promises they don't intend to keep just to get elected (wow that's a revelation). It also states that the people now believe Washington has grown too large and infringes on too much in state and local matters.

This survey certainly explains the popularity of the "Tea Party Movement" in America today. It seems that the majority of Americans want more local control and less Federal control. I think I read about this concept in a document called "The Constitution of the United States of America". Limited federal control is not a novel idea, but it is still a good one, as America is discovering again.

Eighty per cent is a pretty big number, perhaps our current administration will take notice and think about the will of the people, and take some time before they do more to invade the rights of our state and local governments. Those first ten amendments weren't suggestions; they were precepts to be followed. Maybe now Washington will get the hint!