I have been watching Congress and its wonderful desire to create bills that no one (including their authors) can understand. They simply desire to fix basic problems with complex solutions that include additions that have absolutely no relationship with the original problems. I suggest a constitutional amendment that a good English teacher would appreciate, a bill can only be voted on if the average 9th grader can understand its logic and basic implications.
I realize that lawyers dominate politics and that they are experts at creating their own rules but the basic rules of composition and clear and understandable writing should be a basic criteria of any law adopted by a democracy. If the people can't understand it, and if the people who vote on it admit publicly that they have no idea how it will work until after it is implemented (I understand that we can't know perfectly the implications of any law) it shouldn't be a law.
Simplicity should be a hallmark of democracy.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Be more concerned with your character,,,
John Wooden said, "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
Wouldn't this be nice to see as a trait in those who lead us? People who consider who they are before they care what you think of them? Our political landscape is made up of people who don't seem to have heard these words though the greatest politicians of the past seem to have lived up to them.
Now we have career politicians, people who are designed to care what people think of them, people with small convictions and great ambitions, and very little understanding of the people they are called to represent.
I am not here to bash one side of the political spectrum or the other but to call both sides to their convictions. Say what your character says you should say, be who you actually are, let the people know and make their decisions and be inspired by your convictions. Stop playing games with us, we know you are and are pretty upset about it.
I would hate to see any of the greats of the past come back to listen to you play your games and make your decisions on polls and prognosticators. They would say listen to your character, be who you are, don't sell your soul, and most of all do what is right for the country and not what makes YOU feel good.
30 second commercials and soundbites don't mean anything, what you actually do means everything. If you bow to enemies thinking they will be friends after you are a fool, if you ignore your friends when they are in trouble you are a fool. Fools have no place in leading us.
I don't want to run you out of office, I want you to run into yourself: to see who you really are and make the changes that need to be made to make you into a real person who can lead real people. Do what it is that YOU are called to do and don't play games while you do it. If that means they will hate you, let them, you are called to do something greater... and if they love you be careful, the praise of human beings is a very dangerous thing, it is what we naturally seek and what naturally puts us face down in the mud.
So listen to your calling, express it honestly, and don't play games to get people to like you.
Wouldn't this be nice to see as a trait in those who lead us? People who consider who they are before they care what you think of them? Our political landscape is made up of people who don't seem to have heard these words though the greatest politicians of the past seem to have lived up to them.
Now we have career politicians, people who are designed to care what people think of them, people with small convictions and great ambitions, and very little understanding of the people they are called to represent.
I am not here to bash one side of the political spectrum or the other but to call both sides to their convictions. Say what your character says you should say, be who you actually are, let the people know and make their decisions and be inspired by your convictions. Stop playing games with us, we know you are and are pretty upset about it.
I would hate to see any of the greats of the past come back to listen to you play your games and make your decisions on polls and prognosticators. They would say listen to your character, be who you are, don't sell your soul, and most of all do what is right for the country and not what makes YOU feel good.
30 second commercials and soundbites don't mean anything, what you actually do means everything. If you bow to enemies thinking they will be friends after you are a fool, if you ignore your friends when they are in trouble you are a fool. Fools have no place in leading us.
I don't want to run you out of office, I want you to run into yourself: to see who you really are and make the changes that need to be made to make you into a real person who can lead real people. Do what it is that YOU are called to do and don't play games while you do it. If that means they will hate you, let them, you are called to do something greater... and if they love you be careful, the praise of human beings is a very dangerous thing, it is what we naturally seek and what naturally puts us face down in the mud.
So listen to your calling, express it honestly, and don't play games to get people to like you.
Friday, April 9, 2010
A Strange Old World...
The current political scene is rife with accusations of unfairness, bitterness, frustration, polarization, and almost any opposite that attracts the other. This is nothing new and anyone who says it is has to be blind to history... simply go back to the previous administration and look at the accusations, name calling, and outright bitterness. This is our recent history so please don't pretend that something new is happening in the outrage section of our politics.
And as a Democrat I have to admit that my party is to blame in most of the name calling... yes there are some on the right that have moved beyond the "niceties" of politics (can you believe I wrote that?) but the outright name calling and vitriol of the left toward any conservative opinion is far less grounded in thought than even the Rush Limbaugh's of the right... by the way what is the percentage of people who actually listen to Rush or the like? 10% -20%? How many people have heard the message of the left and Obama in particular... this President has spoken and spoken and spoken like no right winger to even the largest audience anyone could speak to and without any difficult questions... even a follow up to what is your favorite White Sox player in history to a guy who made it evident that he is a "fan" to the detriment of the Nats, the Cubs, and any other team... I doubt he could name a non-steroid taking A's player if actually questioned.
This is a strange world. Our President is proving beyond any other in recent history that he is out of touch with the people he is supposed to represent. Even Nixon, who I recently got to watch a person rub their shoe on his brick in the walk of fame at Whittier College, was more transparent and held more accountable by the "media".
This is a strange world... my sense is that we have move back in history not forward. We now live in the early 20th century, where the back rooms contained the power and no claim that Halliburton (sic) comes close to what is happening.
There is so little consolation in politics, it seems that my namesake had a better end... at least only the dark ages followed his passing.
And as a Democrat I have to admit that my party is to blame in most of the name calling... yes there are some on the right that have moved beyond the "niceties" of politics (can you believe I wrote that?) but the outright name calling and vitriol of the left toward any conservative opinion is far less grounded in thought than even the Rush Limbaugh's of the right... by the way what is the percentage of people who actually listen to Rush or the like? 10% -20%? How many people have heard the message of the left and Obama in particular... this President has spoken and spoken and spoken like no right winger to even the largest audience anyone could speak to and without any difficult questions... even a follow up to what is your favorite White Sox player in history to a guy who made it evident that he is a "fan" to the detriment of the Nats, the Cubs, and any other team... I doubt he could name a non-steroid taking A's player if actually questioned.
This is a strange world. Our President is proving beyond any other in recent history that he is out of touch with the people he is supposed to represent. Even Nixon, who I recently got to watch a person rub their shoe on his brick in the walk of fame at Whittier College, was more transparent and held more accountable by the "media".
This is a strange world... my sense is that we have move back in history not forward. We now live in the early 20th century, where the back rooms contained the power and no claim that Halliburton (sic) comes close to what is happening.
There is so little consolation in politics, it seems that my namesake had a better end... at least only the dark ages followed his passing.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thoughts on the Healthcare fiasco
Watching this tonight brought back that last scene in Thelma and Louise:
Reminds me of this scene:
First, this is not a compromise bill not matter how loudly people scream that it is. It is a partisan bill put forth by Democratic leadership without consideration of Republicans or the majority of the people. It has brought backroom politics back into the mainstream and even if it weren't such a flawed piece of legislation (remember this is the Senate's version, one which is not much of a compromise with the House version) is one that will have a horrible effect on politics in the United States.
To think that Obama ran as someone who would bring us together, offer hope, and change the status quo in Washington and see now that the only thing that is transparent is his and his party's utter disregard for the will of the people and their own promises to those same people.
The only people who acted in a bipartisan way were the Republicans and the few Democrats smart enough to vote no.
It is sad when probably the most truthful words spoken by Pelosi were that "we need to pass this bill so we can see what is in it." The effect that this legislation will have on our economy, the people it promises to entitle, and those that will pay for it is truly unknown. The estimates that have been given as to costs and how those costs will be paid for are based on very little (probably as much info as was used to create the housing mess we are currently in and as accurate as the costs of medicaid, medicare, and social security, programs already on the brink of bankruptcy.
This bill without compromise, without consideration, and without transparency will pass only with great cost to our nation, the individuals it pretends to save, the Democratic party, and democracy as a way of government. The long term health of our democracy has been injured by the Democratic party and the way they have "solved the health care problem."
Now citizens are left in the waiting room wondering, hoping, and praying that what we love will survive...
Reminds me of this scene:
This is the only way they are going to make this bill fly.
[last lines]
Thelma Dickerson: [with a cliff in front of them and cops behind them]
Thelma Dickerson: OK, then listen; let's not get caught.
Louise Sawyer: What're you talkin' about?
Thelma Dickerson: Let's keep goin'!
Louise Sawyer: What d'you mean?
Thelma Dickerson: ...Go.
Thelma Dickerson: [Thelma nods ahead of them]
Louise Sawyer: You sure?
Thelma Dickerson: Yeah.
First, this is not a compromise bill not matter how loudly people scream that it is. It is a partisan bill put forth by Democratic leadership without consideration of Republicans or the majority of the people. It has brought backroom politics back into the mainstream and even if it weren't such a flawed piece of legislation (remember this is the Senate's version, one which is not much of a compromise with the House version) is one that will have a horrible effect on politics in the United States.
To think that Obama ran as someone who would bring us together, offer hope, and change the status quo in Washington and see now that the only thing that is transparent is his and his party's utter disregard for the will of the people and their own promises to those same people.
The only people who acted in a bipartisan way were the Republicans and the few Democrats smart enough to vote no.
It is sad when probably the most truthful words spoken by Pelosi were that "we need to pass this bill so we can see what is in it." The effect that this legislation will have on our economy, the people it promises to entitle, and those that will pay for it is truly unknown. The estimates that have been given as to costs and how those costs will be paid for are based on very little (probably as much info as was used to create the housing mess we are currently in and as accurate as the costs of medicaid, medicare, and social security, programs already on the brink of bankruptcy.
This bill without compromise, without consideration, and without transparency will pass only with great cost to our nation, the individuals it pretends to save, the Democratic party, and democracy as a way of government. The long term health of our democracy has been injured by the Democratic party and the way they have "solved the health care problem."
Now citizens are left in the waiting room wondering, hoping, and praying that what we love will survive...
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