Deaf to the people | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Americans suffered a severe disappointment with the recent defeat of a weakened gun control bill, despite 90 percent public approval. Voters rightly blame Congress for ignoring their own constituents' wishes.

However, the real problem was money that bought many legislators. Who had the big bucks to oppose the people? The National Rifle Association, of course.

When you consider how difficult it is to get our Congress to pass legislation that benefits the common people, and how easy it is to grant special privileges to the wealthy and big business, it makes you wonder who is running the country.

How can we keep corporate money from ruining our representative democracy? We need a nonpartisan organization to examine politicians' records and see how often they voted against the public's wishes and then ask the public to donate to defeat or elect that candidate.

Bob Van Velkinburgh

Syracuse