It’s
an anniversary of sorts as it’s been seven years since I’ve been writing this
blog, this memoir, this record of just one person’s views during that
period. I’ve been all over the place
with content, mostly starting with some personal history, some postings about
my former profession, publishing, on to politics, the economy, the market, lots
of postings on our travels and boating, with photographs, my affair with the
piano, including some videos, and, more lately, focusing on literature and
theatre. I’ve always considered myself a
generalist, jack of all trades and master of, maybe, a few. As such, blog traffic is less than specialist
blogs written by “experts”, but that’s OK.
I write for my own pleasure.
Recently I updated my profile to include a Robert Heinlein quote which I
think best explains my eclecticism: A human being should be able to change a
diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a
sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take
orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new
problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
While
I can and have done most of these things and could probably learn the rest
(would like to pass on butchering a hog – I don’t eat hogs anyhow), I mean eclecticism
on a more metaphoric basis. My interests
take me many places and these are reflected here. I just don’t write about one subject. I’m not an insect!
I
see that I’ve mostly avoided politics lately.
It’s not that I lost interest, but the tide of campaign money had risen
to such an extent that we, the voters, have been drowning in distorted
advertising, appealing to emotion, twisting the facts, and little about the
issues themselves. I have long contended
that political advertising should be banned and candidates should have rounds
of public debates, but debates in the purist sense of the word where they cannot
go to their well-rehearsed sound bites.
We learned more from the “debates” between Crist and Scott in the
Florida Governor’s race about their families than anything else, not to mention
whether a “fan” is an “electronic device.”
And the media was swamped by the endless political advertising and
mailers. The number of times I had to
hear or see the words “Charlie Crist, Slick Politician, Lousy Governor” was
sickening. All this $$ spent across America
to promote attack sound bites. I say
give it all to charity and make the politicians stick to the issues.
It
reminds me of the Manchurian Candidate. The queen of diamonds is beaten into one’s
brain, and you pull the right (no pun intended) lever on command (oops, we mostly don’t pull
levers anymore behind a curtain, but mark electronic ballots). Corporations are people! And that is the message of the mid-terms,
money prevails and people vote against their best interests. No doubt the Koch brothers are happy. They paid enough, along with the so-called
“dark money.”
Assault
weapon control, immigration reform, and righting fiscal policy are the really
big elephants in the legislative room.
No, these we avoid. The only good
news in the political arena is those endless robocalls, mailings, radio
messages and TV ads, all little subliminal negative messages are over for the
time being. Good riddance. They should be banned.
Our
political system is broken, at the election level and on the legislative level. The mid-term elections now turn over
control of both the House and Senate to Republicans. OK, it’s your turn!
© John Jonik
