UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Despite the checks and balances, there really isn’t an arm of government in DC that safeguards our liberty. There’s no government agency that can ensure that our country remains a democracy or that we’re playing fairly on the global stage. Those heavy responsibilities fall to us, the citizens of the United States – and most of us feel unprepared for the task.

Thomas Jefferson, for one, was adamant about the need for citizens to be prepared for this role – pointing out that it’s crucial for “the little people” to have information and to be involved: if the masses are ignorant about the actions of their government and are clueless about world affairs, all the ideals that the United States of America was founded on – liberty, justice, democracy, representation of the people – can easily go flying out the window, and the ability of those in DC to shred our rights and simultaneously upset the world balance has been well-demonstrated in recent years.

That’s why Melissa Rossi launched the “What Every American Should Know” series – to help everyday Americans easily get the information they need to decipher what is happening in DC, corporate boardrooms, and the world outside of our borders – in the hopes that they are informed enough to take back the power granted to them by the constitution. Breaking down complex information into easily-digested nuggets, Rossi culls information from government reports, interviews, journals, think tanks and highbrow magazines and puts them into a breezy format that doesn’t require a doctorate to plow through.

“Too many people feel clueless about what is going on in our world -- who the players are, what they’re doing, even how the US government shapes the global reality or our own lives,” says Rossi, who is currently researching upcoming books in Asia. “It’s understandable why people can’t keep up: schools don’t teach us geography and skim through history and current events, forgetting to cover what we need to know to understand power politics or global geopolitics. The media too often can’t investigate past a press release and slap gags on their own reporters, and our news networks hop, skip and jump across the planet at a dizzying pace, frequently pumping out little more than propaganda or celebrity news. The Internet is amazing, but can overwhelm, and only a quarter of American citizens have passports, many used only to cross over to Canada. So no wonder most Americans know very little about what is happening on the planet – or in our own country.”

Some books of the WEASK series – such as What Every American Should Know about the Rest of the World and What Every American Should Know about Europe focus on the world outside our boundaries, and offer a quick brushup on geopolitics. Others, such as What Every American Should Know about Who is Really Running the World and the most recent What Every American Should Know Who is Really Running America, delve into power – who has it and how they’re using and abusing it.

Lauded by many, skewered by some for her tendency to slam liars, scammers and those who abuse their office, Rossi – with the help of researcher Melik Boudemagh – sweeps up the dirt and puts it on the stage for public scrutiny, all the more in the recently released WEASK Who is Really Running America, which takes a look at how lobbyists have become campaign financiers, Big Business is deciding US foreign policy, our ambassadors and officials have bought their way into appointments and how the short-sighted agendas of powerful energy players are damaging our future.