LETTER: Restructured government would better represent Americans' interests

President Obama is sending 17,000 troops to Afghanistan to shore up the stability and help secure the region. This is like guarding the back door of our security and leaving the front door open, meaning our borders. Our borders are more of a danger to our security than that of the Mideast, as all we are doing there is increasing the hate that President Bush started in Iraq, and wasting tax money and the lives of our brave troops. Thousands of illegals are coming across our borders bringing drugs, women for prostitution and perhaps terrorists with dirty bombs.

We need to restructure our government like we are asking our car manufacturers to … as it is broken, full of corruption, and misrepresents the majority of our citizens. Our government is now a government controlled by wealthy individuals and large corporations. We need to construct a department of common sense — people of the working middle class who received their education from the School of Hard Knocks, and not of millionaires from Harvard and Yale, which are out of contact with the majority of our people on Main Street. This department could advise our president and Congress to the needs of the majority of our citizens. It is not enough to do as President Kennedy said when he said, "Ask not what your government can do for you but what you can do for your country.” We must ask what we can do to make our country more representative of all people and not just those of the wealthy!

A democracy will only work for the people if more people become involved in the affairs of the government by keeping informed and contacting our president and Congress.