We elect people to lead us, however. We don’t want officials who simply listen and do exactly as the people want. Most of us don’t have the time to be able to speak and act intelligently on all the issues – everything from dog bites to Westwood Station (or, in my case, Legacy Place) – that come before our elected officials. We put a few select men into positions to decide on our behalf. We don’t want to end up like Alexandre Ledru-Rollin, the French revolutionary who saw a mob running by and said “There go my people. I must find out where they are going so that I may lead them.”