Letter: Citizens need to be informed

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 | 8:57 a.m.

Sylvia Lampe Gross, in her Sunday letter to the editor, "Not voting is not an option," has correctly exhorted people to be good citizens by exercising their right to vote and informing themselves.

I would like to add that as good citizens, we also need to emphasize studying and re-studying the U.S. Constitution, our state Constitution, our state statutes and our city ordinances. We need to find out who our city officials are, who our county officials are, who our state legislators are, and who our congressional representatives are. We need to find out how to contact them. We need to become observers of their activities and where to contact them by letter or in person if they are not following our Constitution. We also need to keep our fellow citizens informed at the grass roots.

Most of all, we need to learn how to write letters to these officials and to the newspapers. Many of us cannot do this yet and must learn how to do it.

In place of sitting in casinos, taverns, in front of the "boob tube," following sports and other entertainment and diversions, we need to become qualified as an informed electorate. Then, when we go to the polls, we will be able to vote as informed citizens.

FRANK M. PELTESON