who is representing you?

today's comment will start with a history lesson. in 1776, the declaration of independence was signed by 56 members of what is known as the continental congress. these men were duly elected as representatives of the original 13 colonies and they were effectively the voice of the colonists. each man had the confidence of his respective colonies and they acquitted themselves well. the colonies, at that time, were under the rule of king george III of england and were being forced to pay taxes to the crown without the benefit of representation in the english parliament. for this reason, the colonists revolted. taxation without representation was one of the major reasons why we fought the british to gain independence. now, i told you that story to tell you this one: today, we have the house of representatives and the senate. these are representatives that are duly elected by the people of their respective states to represent us in congress. they were originally intended to be our voice in government. ideally, because we are represented, we can be taxed. the problem with this nowadays is, we are not being represented. they are republicans and democrats and they have long ago abandoned the people who sent them to washington. both republicans and democrats are in direct opposition to each other on just about every issue. no longer do the houses of congress represent the people but rather they seem to be only concerned with stopping the opposition party from winning an argument. taxes pay these people's salaries. it is time that we, as a nation, put an end to this insanity. we are now experiencing the very thing that our forefathers fought to stop. we are being taxed without proper representation in congress. i say if they refuse to represent us, we should refuse to pay their salary. maybe if we stop paying taxes they will get back to the business of representing us.