Dear Politician

I am one of the many people who elected you. I have been voting for 28 years, my vote has given many politicians over these years the opportunity to represent the views of those that elected them. We place our trust in you, our beliefs and our dreams. Not because you are better than us or more educated than us but because in a lot of cases you have the ability to do what some prefer not to do or are uncomfortable doing. You have the ability to talk in public. In my own case, I could challenge many of those that I voted for to have a better formal and academic education than mine, I could also say that in many instances I am more articulate, better able to converse and more driven, I only lack the desire to be centre stage, the willingness to put myself into the full public view. I don’t do it not because I am unable but because I have thought too much about how I wouldn’t be able to tow the part line, how I might need to vote with my conscience, how I am not sure that I could argue the case about something that I don’t believe in.

Today I spoke to a politician who firstly couldn’t even remember meeting me despite conversing with me for well over 30 minutes less than 6 months previously. But it wasn’t the lack of recognition that bothered me but the fact that despite me offering my assistance in an area that I have worked in since well before this politician was elected, it was his look of arrogance and disdain. I am not part of the clique or the specially selected groups, I am however, someone who has a real interest in a particular area, someone who has spent over a decade highlighting the need for real engagement, someone who has ruffled a few feathers; in fact I am someone who has been tarred as others have with untruths. Instead of accepting my assistance given without any expectation, I was given a fail save statement, met with a perception that I somehow might not be at the same level as the great heights that this politician portrays they are at. I had great hopes for this politician, I thought they might actually make a difference, little did I realise that they too would succumb to the curse of listening too much to one group of individuals. When you fail to ensure true engagement you fail to safeguard those who elected you. It doesn’t matter if you were not in that position when something goes wrong as by your inaction you have perpetuated the wrong doing, you have facilitated the inaction. You are the keeper of the gate and whether it happened on your watch or not you will face the consequences.

The right to vote is a privilege, one that I since I was 18 years of age considered a responsibility. I take my vote seriously. On occasion I discuss my voting preferences, my political thoughts within my social networks. 

When the next election comes around, many hopeful candidates will call to my door, the doors of my friends in Blanchardstown, Glasnevin, Skerries and counties around Ireland.

 I will be asking all my friends, family and colleagues to consider the following piece that I will be saying to the politicians in my area, and ask these politicians a simple question and its goes like this.

“You don’t know me but I am well aware of you. Over this election period many of you will call to my door asking for my support. You will tell me how you plan to change things, to make things better for the likes of me. But when I close the door I will think about the fact that you don’t know me or my family or my circumstances. When I look for your support you won’t remember the person in 83 with the three children, a strong academic background and chronic illnesses that lost her job at an awkward age. You won’t remember that I made a contribution to society; that I sought to improve it. You won’t see the tears run down my face or the low self-esteem because I can no longer support my family the way I want to. You will see me as a statistic, a person on social welfare bleeding the state. So when you come to my door in the coming months I only have one question for you. If I support you will you remember to support me? I will ask this even though I know in my heart you will answer yes but in your heart you will say no.”