I've concluded, after having sat through the latest debate and reading the news stories and the analysis (= "let me inflict my particular point of view on you, Mr. or Mrs. Cretin and speak in authoritative tones so that, metaphysically, I convert my opinion into your facts") that this Election Day we are frighteningly close, and growing ever closer, to getting exactly the kind of government we deserve. I do not pretend to be happy about that.
Are we there yet? Am I the only one sick of hearing about how Barack Obama made 'Smores with a domestic terrorist? I guess not, as Sarah Plain has worked it into her stump speech. Do I know how many aircraft John McCain crashed while he was a Navy pilot? I'm assuming this is important because Air Force One costs a lot of money and they can't lock the cockpit door.
C'mon--someone needs to stop the hair pulling and the 'Mom! He started it first stuff!' And it needs to happen in the now. First of all, there's more than two bozos in the clown car (see? In a battle of wits with me all three Senators and the Governor are unarmed). And we need to remind the two primary actors in this drama that there are others running, albeit with limited hopes for success, because substance should matter more than style. Steak should trump sizzle-even for a vegan (Hey! That might make a catchy slogan).
Use the tools available online, fact check and others like it, or this one from vote.org that solicited the two major party candidates on a raft of issues (maybe one or more of them will resonate with you?) and claims to offer their verbatim responses. These aren't the only places to check, by any means, nor should any of them be the only measurement you employ to decide for whom to vote. But you need to choose-it's freedom OF choice, not freedom FROM choice.
But in a mean-spirited demolition derby of a national election, which is what we are having now because at some level that's what we want, we already need to focus on November 5th which is the day after this Bonfire of the Insanities and Vanities is extinguished. All of the 'hockey-mom attack dog', 'genius at verbal self-immolation', 'too black', 'too old', 'too different' and 'too much the same' arguments, if that's what they ever were (and I doubt it) will have melted away by the dawn's early light, leaving us all to marvel that the sun does, indeed, come up and we have to make our peace with vox populi and its consequences. E Pluribus Unum and not WTFO.
We went from negative to terminally toxic while the balloon drop was still going on at the national conventions. I met your children-what did you tell them? And don't think I'm being dramatic or sentimental when I mention our children. Remember how we grew up vowing not only to make a difference but to be the difference? How's that working out? Pool ain't in but the patio's dry. As long as we stick someone else with the tab for our actions and our inactions, and then get the heck out of Dodge, it'll be alright. Yeah, about that.....
Who's going to repair the planet? Create real wealth for all instead of vapor trails in account ledgers? What about health-care and human rights or the politics of need versus greed? Don't tell me what 'we' need to do-tell me how we are going to do it.
We kept saying to our parents, 'just you wait'. So far, so good-so what? All they wanted for us was the best and look at what we've settled for and what we're saddling unborn generations with. We are the only ones we can count on to help ourselves now, so let's begin today. Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl. Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.
-bill kenny
Housekeeping note: As it wasn't (and still isn't) on the City of Norwich's website as a meeting for tonight (glad I found this on The Day's website), wanted to correct something I incorrectly concluded on Monday had been canceled. The Mayor's Economic Roundtable on the Norwichtown Mall (unencumbered by the presence of the mall's owners, Edens and Avant) will be held today at 5:30 PM in City Hall, though there's more than enough room in the NT Mall itself for such a meeting. The previous two sessions of community leaders at the roundtable have discussed the Norwich portion of the Norwich Hospital Property-I am not aware of any conclusions developed or decisions made as a result of those discussions.
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