* Increasing public debate about issues that affect us all.  

* Reversing the agenda setting function of the mass media.  

* Re-creating a sense of community through discussion of issues that affect us all.  

* Making ours a government that is truly of, by, and for the people.  

* Encouraging the use of the internet to revive public debate and democracy.  

The purpose of this website is to help you to inform yourself on what is happening in the world and to provide a space for you to talk about issues that concern you.  

Follow the links provided to find out about our world. We have included links to various civic organizations, social movements, news organizations, politicians, and other YOUMATTER articles.  

Now use your voice constructively!!! Write a decision maker (politician or media outlet) and tell them
what you think! Then, join the chat room below and see what others have to say. Remember, democracy requires that we are not only informed, but that we are VOCAL!  
 
   
"If there is one conclusion to which human experience unmistakably points, it is that democratic ends DEMAND democratic methods for their realization."  
--John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems, 1927  

"Washington is a VERY easy city for you to forget where you came from and why you got there in the first place"  
--Harry S. Truman  

"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the CITIZEN to keep the Government from falling into error."  
--Robert H. Jackson, U.S. Judge, 1950 

Friends and Fellow Citizens: 
I stand before you to-night, under indictment for the alleged CRIME of having voted at the last Presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply excercised my citizen's RIGHT, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any State to deny." 
--Susan B. Anthony, 1872