In Congress: The most dangerous neighborhood in America (Harper’s Magazine, by Ken Silverstein, 9/25/07) Silverstein compares the crime rates of two of Americas must troubled cities with that of Congress. Although Congress does not commit as heinous crimes as Anacostia and the South Bronx, the crime rate is much higher. These crimes do not include rape and murder as far as public knows, but the sheer number of crimes per person more than makes up for that. One cannot help but ask how the leaders of America produce one of the highest crime rates in America at 7 percent. This is nearly seven times that of the South Bronx and it is roughly double that of Anacostia. Many of these criminals are reelected for another term.
Unfortunately, most of the cases are not widely publicized, so the public is unaware of the level of criminal activity. I think that these cases should be publicized so that the nation knows what kinds of people are representing their respective states.
A person that has been recently convicted of a crime has an extremely hard time finding any job, but any Congressman that is under investigation for a white collar crime is able to help represent the voices of the people. Many jobs today require a background screening too. Something needs to be done to stop all of the corruption in Congress, such as a legislation to stop past offenders from being reelected. Unfortunately, those that commit these crimes are also those that vote on the legislation. There has to be a way to pass a law to keep those that make the laws honest.
3 comments:
I guess that I've never really given any thought to all the corruption that happens throughout our government. I disagree with the fact that we never here about government scandals because when I watch the news there have been cases in which they mention some sort of corruption. I agree that the media covers rapes and murders heavily compared with government corruption. I think that this is because rapes and murders is more interesting to viewers than what is happening in their own government, which is very sad. I think that it is very interesting to see the statistic that 7 percent of crime happens within our government, the people who are supposed to be protecting us from crime. I know that it is hard to believe in a Congress in which many people who vote for laws are so corrupt, but we as the voters are the ones that put these people in office. From now on, we as American voters should be more careful who we put into office and make sure that our vote is for a sound council. This could allow for less corruption. Another way that a person could advocate for a sound Council would be to help an honest person campaign for a Congress postion.
I have never heard about any of the wrongdoers in Congress until now, and it really does amaze me. If there were 42 people who commited a crime in Congress, and that techincally makes Congress more crime filled than some of the most crime filled cities, then I think something should definitely be done about this. I mean, the crimes are obviously not as bad as those commited in the cities (rape, robbery, etc) but they are still crimes. I agree with what Chris said about it being difficult for regular people who have commited a crime to get a job, and I think commiting a crime should definitely take away a person's ability to be revoted onto Congress. The people on Congress are people who help create our laws, and I think these people should be following them themselves, or else that is just hypcritical. Voters should put more effort into finding out who exactly they really are voting for, and I think criminal records are something that should definitely be taken into account before a person can be put into office.
I think that it's the American people's responsibility to vote those who are politically and morally correct into the government. They, as citizens, have a duty to share thier opinion on who they think is the best candidate for the job. However, it is more difficult for a teenager to know who is corrupt, and who is not. I myself do not watch the news regularly, nor do I read the newspaper. I don't have any idea who is doing what crime in congress, but I do know that there should be some sort of easy access news to teenagers so that they can find out these sort of things. The news and newspapers are extremely boring, but if a website or something of that nature could post new news daily, and have it be easy to access, I think teenagers would be more interested in what is going on in our congress. A short and sweet statement about the truth of our congress would give the teenager enough information to decide who they want to vote for. If more teenagers were informed of the wrong-doings in congress, I think that there would be less crimes and more honesty in the system.
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