Warren Buffet recently published an op-ed criticizing what he calls a “billionaire-friendly Congress.” Criticism of Congress on this matter is nothing new, but I would hope that between Buffet’s piece, the existence of the Giving Pledge and President Barack Obama’s promise to veto any deficit plan that cuts funding from Medicare benefits for seniors without also asking the wealthiest 10 percent and corporations to pay their fair share, I would hope that the 12-member super committee would respond appropriately. That means not only letting go of the politics and start applying some common sense, but acting efficiently and in the best interest of the majority of Americans, not the best interests of a political ideology. As the posturing begins over the new budget and taxes, maybe the U.S. government needs a reminder of who it works for and whose interests it needs to serve.

I may not understand how this country mathematically decides who needs to pay what, and frankly, since math is a form of logic and there is nothing logical about the way Congress operates, I doubt that there is an empirical process in place any more. But it’s a fact that the average American puts a much higher percentage of their paycheck towards running this nation than the wealthiest people in America. It’s a fact that right now Fox “news” and its bedfellows are demanding that the government take more from the average American and adamantly opposing any tax increases for the wealthy. Suddenly the logic is clear. Someone, somewhere in that group of reactionary politicians and pundits is more than a little unwilling to “pay their fair share.” However, it would be quite alright for the family barely surviving life paycheck to paycheck to give up a little bit more, even though there are wealthy people in this nation not only pledging to give away the majority of their wealth in life or death to philanthropic efforts, but also asking to be taxed.

I realize we established our presence as a nation because of taxes and tariffs that were too high, but I also like to believe that I don’t live in the 1700s. This reactionary refusal to tax the wealthiest Americans and corporations, I would argue, is un-American and works actively against the humanitarian law we as a first world nation are purported to uphold. By standing by as 12 minds decide if the rest of us will be economically capable of continuing our standards of living or if we will all slip closer to the poverty line, we are allowing America to undergo a metamorphosis into a third world nation. We are watching Washington scrabble over ideological dominance. In the mean time, we are losing the ability to control our own lives. We love to talk and do nothing. We then become frustrated and disillusioned as our politicians and president do the same thing and push the actual work to the next term.

But Americans were not always content to watch politicians posture and plaster rhetoric-band aids over the issues that were causing their livelihoods to bleed away. There was a time not too long ago when American college students had the courage to actively oppose a government that failed the people’s needs. How many of us would have the courage to stick a flower in the muzzle of a gun instead of just signing an online petition and playing into the lobbying, politic game?

Every college campus in this nation is filled with bright minds that are not going to have the bright futures they were promised unless we make a stand. So why not act? Imagine organizing enough students to fill the streets of D.C., so that Congress could not adjourn, not even for the day, until functional progress was made. Imagine inconveniencing and affecting our representatives’ lives as much as they will inconvenience ours if they do not put aside the politics to solve this financial problem.

Congress meets its deadlines and starts taxing those who can afford it, or we as the inheriting generation need to remind the government exactly who granted it power, and who can take it away. I for one refuse to stand idle in face of dogmatic stupidity – on both sides of the party lines. In Australia, when Aboriginal people failed to be recognized and represented, they built an embassy of tents on the lawn of the Old Parliament House. We need to remember that we have the same power to remind our government of its duties and the ability to hold it accountable when it fails. I will bring the tent.