It's Better to Forgive than Receive

It happens on a regular cycle so there's really no reason to be surprised. Usually within a fortnight of Labor Day we have a shift in the weather, and the heat and humidity depart, not before dumping a large amount of rain in a short amount of time on the just and the unjust, and the leaves start to turn and the lawn signs start to spring up.

National elections, where we choose a President, consume oceans of ink. This time a year ago, our race for Governor drained many a barrelful, but it's where the road and the sky collide, here at the local level, that the real issues in search of answers get decided. And the only history that gets written is what we choose to write. We can wound with words.

We look at politicians in D.C. or in Hartford as an abstraction and more often than not we're right but those who seek office inside the city limits are our neighbors and acquaintances, if not friends. We can put names to faces and faces to positions on issues that affect us immediately. Our families see one another in the market, at a local community event or just out for a walk on the weekend.

It's pretty easy for most of us politically to tell a John Boehner from a Joe Biden even from a distance but when we're looking for leadership in Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, the nuances and differences are more subtle.

It's more a question of degree than dogma and that's as it should be because this is where we all live, emphasis on the all-and decisions made 'for the common good' really mean for every one on both sides of the street up and down the block. And when less than a quarter of all registered voters turn out to cast a ballot, leading starts to resemble shepherding cats.

The Grateful Dead once observed, ‘what a long, strange trip it’s been.’ Amen to that. We thought this time last year was pretty tough and hoped by now we’d be seeing some daylight. Cheer up, the pundits said; things could get worse. So we did, and they did get worse.

I don't pretend to know what has gone wrong or how to fix it but I doubt demonizing the other guys in DC, belittling your Governor, or polluting the blogosphere with innuendo and insinuation when community leaders are in arrears on property taxes or have run-ins with the law is helping.

It most certainly is NOT who we have been since the founding of the Republic. High times on Wall Street and hard times on Main Street. Maybe we don’t need new solutions so much as we need a return to our oldest and truest values.

-bill kenny