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By JOHN GOOLRICK
Rappahannock Neva Special Writer
There was a time not so long ago all the political pundits were complaining about voter apathy.
They claimed the average Joe and Jane cared less about what their elected representatives were doing just so long as none of their favorite oxes were gored. ! Voting statistics certainly tended to bear that out. Indeed, during my days as a journalist it wasn’t at all unusual to see in election years more state legislative seats not contested than contested and voter turnouts that can only be described as pathetically low for a society where the ballot is regarded as our most precious right.
But things have changed dramatically in the past few years at all levels of government. Out there in the real world thousands of citizens have decided that the phrase “government of the people, by the people and for the people” isn’t just empty rhetoric but is exactly the way it ought to be.
Suddenly participatory democracy has come into vogue again across the nation and ceratinly in the state.
From personal experience and other reports I can say that the volume of phone calls and letters to Virginia’s congressional delegation has never been greater. After President .Clinton’s state of the union address it seemed everyone out there wanted to call to put in their two cents worth. And I can assure any skepics that all opinions registered are duly noted and tabulated and that public opinion has a major impact.
On a recent trip to the General Assembly I talked with aides to a number of senators and delgates who said they have simply been deluged by mail and calls this year concerning various issues, including the famous gun control issue which provoked a torrent of opinion pro and con.
Said one veteran aide to a Senator, “It’s really been incredible and it’s been very hard to keep up with. And it’s not just the interest groups generating the calls and letters which has been the case in the past, but hundreds of average citizens have been heard from.
The experience of other legislators and their aides has been the same. And to the 100 members of
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