The importance of being earnest

Shane Wade
Opinion Editor

In such a large nation, it’s difficult to get direct responses back from the officials that represent us, even more so if the official you’re petitioning lives in the White House.

To that end, the White House used the greatest tool of our time, the Internet, to help bridge the gap between representative and constituent by creating an online platform in the form of WhiteHouse.gov petitions.

Once a petition receives a certain number of signatures (currently that number is set at 100,000), the White House is obligated to make a direct statement addressing the petition. Given an almost direct line of communication with the White House, the possibilities for advancing policies, as well as garnering attention for causes and jumpstarting initiatives is endless.

Through this “We the People” initiative, America is once again able to show the world that this is a land of endless possibilities and opportunities and that every voice can be heard.

So, naturally, once given this outlet of speech, we squandered it, so much so that there’s currently a petition to change the national anthem to R. Kelly’s “Ignition (Remix).”

The dereliction and mockery of civic duty first started small, but it gave way to a benchmark in the form of the “build a Death Star” petition, one I had personally heralded as a fanciful, but poignant metaphor for reinvesting our national resources into science and technology fields.

As it turned out, the petition was a much more poignant metaphor for why the White House should raise the signature threshold bar from 25,000 to 100,000.

There’s a time and a place for being entertaining. That time and place is every day on Twitter. White House petitions should not be misused and abused. Asking the White House to change the national anthem or impeach White House officials, as thousands of people have advocated via the petition site, isn’t a wise use of the medium. It’s a distraction and a detraction from what should, can and ought to be a serious mode of enfranchisement.

As entertaining as the possibilities can be, it’s more important that those undersigners realize the damage they’re doing to all causes.
In addition to making it harder to garner signatures and support for meaningful causes, they take valuable media attention and focus away from issues of national importance.

We should also keep in mind that these petitions do not guarantee action, only a direct response from a White House official. They can help to influence policy decisions, maintain a level of citizen involvement and display transparency. Petitions are not necessary about action, but about providing recognition and knowledge about a concern. It’s not the best forum, but it’s one of the best forums we have.

Unfortunately, Americans too often fail to realize that the majority of political power held by the federal government is not in the White House, but in the Congress. Asking for answers from the White House for issues like the gun control and campaign finance will only get us so far. At best, we’ll hear reiterated talking points.

It is our Congressional representatives that we ought to seek answers and action from.

More to the point, it’s necessary that advocates do more than sign online petitions if they wish to advance their causes. Even if a petition isn’t likely to change policy, it’s a way of combining voices and spreading a message beyond one’s immediate environment. Impotent as they may be, petitions serve a valuable purpose in letting people know that they have allies dedicated to their cause.

Petition responsibly and realize that even if you don’t care or think the petition forum is useless, others count on it. Don’t sign on to irrelevant and disingenuous petitions when you have a real chance, however miniscule, to help create change.