• Where’s the vision?

    Do “we the people” reward politicians with simplest messages? Call me a cynic, but I think “we” do. It seems that if an idea can’t be summed up in a thirty second T.V spot it’ doesn’t have a chance in hell of holding up in the public “debate”. How often have you noticed that embracing the complex side of an issue = loosing the battle of public opinion.

    In my humble opinion, the republican party has done a much better job framing their issues in the simplest terms over the last ten years. I am not a member of the republican party, so this distresses me. My problem is that my rationale can’t be summed up in thirty seconds. Even worse, the democratic party rarely rallies behind one unified message, not when it comes to meaningful legislation anyway. I guess history has taught them not to. Look at the push for universal healthcare in the early ’90’s. Can you say ’94 midterms? The unfortunate result has been a democratic party that stands for nothing but nay saying. I’m ready for a democrat with a healthy dose of “substance-saying”. Painting the democratic party with such a broad brush may not be fair, but I come from a county and a state that is fairly republican, so I have no intimate knowledge of democrats at the local level. I can only speak for our leaders at the national level, and I must lament that no one seems to be speaking for me.

  • Contradictions.

    All at once I’m overjoyed for my sister, yet down in the dumps over our own situation at home. So there you have it. I don’t know what to think about it either. Run and hide before the dark cloud of my mood spreads.

    Thank you.
    For Conner’s good health, for the friends we’ve made, for a wife who knows how to fix bad situations, and for a perceived ability to soothe her nerves (I could be wrong on that last one, but I like to think I help at least a little bit).

  • Things break.

    Sure things break, but do they have to break all at once? Here’s this week’s tally: Cheryl’s car (twice), our DVD player, the microwave oven, and my patience. Oh, I forgot to mention the rotting trim on the front porch. Cheryl’s car is not a surprise. I’ve regretted that purchase for 5 years now. The other things are relatively new, so they shouldn’t have broken. Appliances should last at least five years, in my humble opinion, but we’ve been lucky to get two. Oh well, things could be worse. They could be better too.