by:  Diane Benjamin

•  There is nothing you can do about the invasion happening on our southern border.
• There is nothing you can do about the IRS targeting of political enemies.
• There is nothing you can do about the Veterans Administration not taking care of our veterans.
• There is nothing you can do about the National debt

This list could go on and on.  You can contact your representative in Washington DC, but will they listen?  Since all the area reps have been in office for years and have done nothing about these problems, probably not.  Since this is an election year they will make it LOOK like they are doing something.

What can you do?

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All politics is local.  Your aldermen supposedly represent you.

Aldermen Stearns and Lower are vilified by some local residents for standing up for citizens.  Somebody started a rumor that government needs to just get along.  Getting along just got you 3 tax increases Bloomington.  Talk to your neighbors.  Make sure they know who is fighting for you.

Every Council meeting should be a discussion of ideas, not a rubber stamp for whatever is presented.  If you aren’t watching the Council meetings on-line, you are not informed.  Reading the Pantagraph recap doesn’t tell you what happened.   You don’t hear the comments made by aldermen or see them sitting on their hands saying nothing.

YOU can make a big difference locally.  Here’s an immediate action plan:

Contact your Alderman, Mayor Renner, and David Hales.

Tell them:

• Concessions at the Coliseum must be audited.  The City paid for the Point-of-Sale equipment, start using it
• It’s not okay that CIAM (Coliseum management) is taking 14% of items clearly spelled out in the contract at 10% (Club Seats, Suites, Sponsorships, Naming Rights)
• It’s not okay that CIAM is taking a 4% Commission on Sales Tax collected and gross Merchandise Sales
• It’s not okay to bury this information until the contract is renegotiated!
• It’s not okay to renegotiate the contract in private and then ask the Council to rubber stamp it.

One more big one:

It’s not okay to force a hotel downtown with one cent of taxpayer money.  It’s not okay to keep doing (and paying for) studies until one says what the Mayor wants to hear.

In case you really are fired up:

Tell them it’s not okay for the International City Managers Association to be directing policy in Bloomington.  We are not members of the world community, local government can’t even fix the streets!  Have you noticed the same ones keep getting fixed over and over?

Tell them it’s not okay for the National Development Council to advise Bloomington on anything ($60,000 of your money a year).  Anything “National” has no place in Bloomington.  Communities across the country are not same.  Pushing “National” values on local governments is tyranny.

Government is NOT going to solve the country’s problems – they created them.  National and International organizations are no different.  Unless local government is fixed, State and National never will be.

July 4th is soon.  Our country is under attack from within.   People who have dreamed of creating Utopia for decades in classrooms are in power.  It’s their utopia, not yours.  Their utopia is government in control of everything.

If you aren’t willing to fight back and support the people who are – stay home on July 4th.  Don’t put your flag out.  Don’t go to fireworks set to patriot music.   Either the future matters to you or it doesn’t.

I have a huge project to work on that WILL make a difference, so I won’t be posting unless something big happens locally.  I will be back!

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