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Blogs by Erik Hare
Sick of It? Nah!
2/4/2008 7:19:46 PM
In honor of Super Tuesday, I’m going to have a Super Blog entry. Everything will be oversized and beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. Hey, that’s the world we live in, yes?
Just kidding. I’d like to be especially dense and complicated, but it’s just not in me. This is my mail day, and since I don’t have a comments section in this blog format the least I can do is answer the mail I get.
Sadly, this was a thin week for mail. I think the first one sums up why:
Aren’t you sick of politics yet? I sure am. Is this any way to elect a leader?
Short answers: No, and Yes. The long answers are much more esoteric.
I’m not sick of it because it’s all about people. Mostly, it’s about 4-5 people who are running around like crazed cats trying to suck other people’s time and energy into their cause. Why do people get into this stuff? There are many reasons. The energy of the process is like one slo-mo Superbowl, a surprisingly feminine courtship and foreplay ritual punctuated by masculine displays of support, effort, and elation. There’s something for everyone in this, and if you’re interested in meeting a mate of your preference it’s not a bad thing to get involved in.
But we are electing a leader, after all. It does seem a bit silly, but in the end our system of government is a kind of belief system. All of the candidates call us to a kind of faith, a belief in a nation that is either about Christian values, service, or the simple idea that anything really is still possible. Policy naturally flows from the guts, not the head, and there will be plenty of time for the details.
I like to say that any effective work of writing has something for the heart and arm and brain, to quote the great Stan Rogers. Politics is not any different. This is a time for the heart and the arm, making your beliefs into a reality. Later, the heart and brain will have to work out the details. Then it’s all arm as we get down to business. These things all come in time, and they are all the aspects of our life. Like any event, a strong half-step back can give any of us the space we need to see it from afar but the proximity to still wade deep into the joy of the moment. Yeah, I love it.
This week I went on about a fave local issue, the possibility of rail transit in my hometown of Saint Paul. It’s a snooze to most people, but I hope you can see why I went on like a madman when the I-35W bridge went down last August – I’m into this stuff.
I fear you might be right after all about the Central Corridor, but if you are then what comes next?
Sadly, I fear we will have to stare at each other for a while, trying to focus a laser light of blame on anyone that gets within range of our eyesight. I’ve worked long and hard behind the scenes to prevent it, but everyone thinks I’m crazy. There seems to be this belief that if the people in charge want something to happen, they will find a way to make it happen. All I can say is that many of the same people surely wanted that bridge to stay up, and they couldn’t even make that happen.
Faith in our government should have reasonable limits, and we have an not just a right but an obligation to ask hard questions and be informed. The sides here have been pro-train and anti-train, and if you dare question the wisdom of Those Who Install Trains you must be anti-train. Or crazy. It’s the great divide of America writ very, very small. We will have to get past that somehow, and I fear it will take desperation to do so. Look how many people had to die in Iraq and how many foreclosures had to happen before we realized how poisonous the atmosphere is in Washington – and how we have to get past it if we’re ever going to get doodley-squat done.
That’s my mailbag for the week. Sorry it was anything but Super, but I work with what I got. Perhaps I have to write stuff you like better, if you’re all sick of politics. Just remember what Jay Leno once said, “Poly, as in the Greek word for many, and Tics as in bloodsuckers”. If nothing else, ya gotta check yer legs after going into the woods on that one.
If you wish I had more mail to respond to, send me some! I love it when people tell me what an idiot I am, or how I nailed something not seen anywhere else. Usually, it falls inbetween, and we can talk. Send me your thought as wabbitoid47 at yahoo.com and perhaps we can chat!
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