Nearly 20 years ago, my father-in-law was in the hospital with the first of what would be 5 heart attacks. The heart specialist came by for his evening visit. One of the questions the doctor asked my father-in-law was what he did for a living. Well at age 50, this man who had been an outstanding finish carpenter all his life, had been out of work for nearly 2 years before getting a job in a factory. Factory life was new to him at a somewhat advanced age. The machine pace and having many bosses was something brand new.

The doctor shook his head knowingly and said “There is no worse job for stress than being a factory worker. You have no control over anything.” The doctor went on to say that “having no control over anything causes stress and frustration. Even jobs like mine have less stress because I am in control of what I do.”

Boy oh boy has that comment ever stuck with me. When I look at events in the news, this comment often floats into my brain. As I look at the Occupy movement my thoughts go back to that comment. What lies at the very, very bottom of the frustrations that have brought thousands to stand up and say “ENOUGH” is just who is in control.

Some of the biggest stress points in a democracy come where what is supposed to be collides directly with reality. We saw it early in the country when the ideal of freedom and liberty stood in direct contrast with the reality of slavery. Now we see the ideal of “We, the People” standing in direct contrast with the reality of OUR government slowly becoming a paid subsidiary of Wall Street.

As with my father-in-law laying in that bed, it seems as if America has suffered a catastrophic health event due to the stress of having lost control of its life. We as a country now dance to the music that Wall Street plays. We as a country do what Wall Street – through its bought and paid for representatives – tells us to do.

We as individual citizens have lost so much control of our own lives. Women have little control over their own reproductive health. Gays have so many restrictions on how they can conduct their lives. If you want to protest governmental actions, it must be done in proscribed ways. Many citizens are in danger of losing their right to vote because they can’t afford an ID or can’t find a birth certificate. Other of our citizens face arrest because of the color of their skin or the sound of their surname.

And perhaps the biggest single frustration is that millions upon millions have been financially burned, not due to their own choices or actions, but due to the preferences, rules and laws that give corporations and the rich favored treatment. “We, the People” only want a fair chance. But when jobs dry up through mergers or are sent overseas for cheaper wages or money is simply withheld from the system, they ain’t got a chance. While corporations flaunt laws with impunity, their minions in congress and the state legislatures make laws to punish people for being poor.

So the essential question is not who is in control today. That is easy to see. Corporations and the rich are indeed in charge. They got there by buying the service of those in government. The question is, what does our constitution say and how do we get reality back to what is in line with that?

With a system so skewed to one side it is not going to be easy.  And those in power will not give it up willingly. Pressuring elected officials to do the right thing will be met with resistance in the form of huge money and new draconian laws.

But don’t give up – we have the numbers and the votes. It is time to find and elect officials who will put the people back in charge.