Monthly Archives: November 2010

She’s not making this up, and I really wish she were

Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids, who last month regaled readers of The Wall Street Journal with the fascinating fact that not one case of a stranger poisoning kids on Halloween has ever been documented (“‘Stranger Danger’ and the Decline of Halloween“), has now shared with us another extreme tale of the wacky stuff grownups do to overprotect children:

What would you do if you got your kids’ yearbook and all the eyes had been blacked out with magic marker?

Ms. Skenazy credited The Daily Mail and Anorak News for this.

Personally, I’d try to wake up. But at a school in England, the principal is very much awake and behind this whole thing. Apparently, she was so worried someone might cut out the kids’ faces, paste them on child porn pictures and post them on the Internet — yes, that’s really her concern — that she ordered the teachers to manually black out all the children’ eyes.

Let’s pause for a second to consider how lovely an illustration this is of what I call “Worst-First” thinking. That is, thinking up the worst, most perverse explanation for something first, instead of assuming a less dramatic, but far more likely, rationale…

Yecch! The idea that a yearbook would be of interest to anyone other than the kids in it (and their parents), doesn’t seem to have occurred to this woman, who also outlawed the taking of photos or videos at school plays. She’s so worried about perverts, she doesn’t realize how perverted her thought process has become. To her, all kiddie pix are one step away from kiddie porn….

She insists that she’s not making this up, and I’ve never known Lenore to mislead us before, but blimey! That headmistress bird has gone spare! (I’m practicing my English slang for a trip to that country next month, so bear with me. I have a particular penchant for the anachronistic…)

Whew! McConnell owes Democrats a favor

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After Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., oh-so-reluctantly gave in to Tea Party demands to swear off on the earmarks he so dearly loves, the Senate Democrats came to his rescue today:

Senate shuns push for elimination of pet projects

By ANDREW TAYLOR

The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 30, 2010; 11:41 AM

WASHINGTON — The Senate Tuesday rejected a GOP bid to ban the practice of larding spending bills with earmarks – those pet projects that lawmakers love to send home to their states.

Most Democrats and a handful of Republicans combined to defeat the effort, which would have effectively forbidden the Senate from considering legislation containing earmarks like road and bridge projects, community development funding, grants to local police departments and special-interest tax breaks.

The 39-56 tally, however, was a better showing for earmark opponents, who lost a 29-68 vote earlier this year. Any votes next year should be closer because a band of anti-earmark Republicans is joining the Senate…

He owes them one. But will he repay? Is there honor among earmarkers?

That great new GM ad

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Gotta hand it to the folks at GM. This ad, which I first saw during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, is a grabber. It works really well.

The part that really pulled me in and kept me watching long enough to find out what it was about? The bit from “Animal House” when the Deltas are all sitting around looking dejected. They offer that slightly vague little pop culture reference, and it feels like a bit of a challenge, like, “Do you know what this is?” and you do, and you feel cool for knowing, so you keep watching to see what else you’ll see.

You get the sense that it’s pitched at Boomers and our elders, because of the combination of that and Popeye, and to a slightly lesser extent Evel Knievel, and especially the failed launch from the early days of NASA. (I had to explain that to my daughter, because she didn’t understand there was a time when we all thought, as Tom Wolfe summed it up, “Our rockets always blow up!“) It’s nice to see an ad pitched to grownups, one that makes us feel like we’re with it. If we listen hard enough, we even realize that piano is wandering about the melody of “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” (I thought, “Long and Winding…” no, but something about a road being long… Um, Neil Diamond… no, not originally… then I got it. The Hollies.)

Anyway, nice job. It was almost worth all that money we gave y’all.

Is English “The Last Lingua Franca?”

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Stan Dubinsky brings to my attention an article about a book, The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babel, by Nicholas Ostler. The article he refers to was dense and unappealing, but I was intrigued by the title of the book. The thesis of the book, apparently, is not what the title implies. It implied, to me, that language will be the world’s common language for practical purposes forever and ever, amen — or until some apocalyptic collapse. The actual proposition is somewhat different:

English is the world’s lingua franca-the most widely spoken language in human history. And yet, as historian and linguist Nicholas Ostler persuasively argues, English will not only be displaced as the world’s language in the not-distant future, it will be the last lingua franca, not replaced by another.

The reasons why the author believes there will be no such common language in the future are less interesting to me — angels on the head of a pin, frankly — than wondering what folks will be speaking and writing several centuries hence.

And while it may be comparatively lowbrow, I think Joss Whedon’s prediction in the “Firefly” series was as credible as any other: He had all humans in the universe speaking a combination of English and Mandarin.

Bad Things Arising (got to shake these from my head)

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Over the weekend, I had some silly be-bop song running through my head, after hearing it on a CD my wife was playing in the kitchen. Perfectly harmless, and no permanent damage. I’ve already forgotten what song it was.

Today, something more ominous has gripped my mind… I’ve got two songs from “Jesus Christ Superstar” running through my mind — “This Jesus Must Die” (which is bad enough) and “Judas’ Death.”

This is what I get, I suppose, for not going to Mass yesterday. I had a cold, I was scheduled to administer the Eucharist, and under the circumstances I thought it best not to show.

Now this.

Sample lyrics from the first song:

Caiaphas:

Fools! You have no perception
The stakes we are gambling
Are frighteningly high
We must crush him completely
So like John before him
This Jesus must die
For the sake of the nation
This Jesus must die
Must die, must die
This Jesus must die…

And a sample from the second:

Judas
My God, I saw him
He looked three-quarters dead
And he was so bad
I had to turn my head
You beat him so hard
That he was bent and lame
And I know who everybody’s
Going to blame
I don’t believe he knows
I acted for our good
I’d save him all the suffering
If I could
Don’t believe
Our good
Save him
If I could

Now, in my defense, the first song really has some appealingly clever lyrics, before you get to the bloodthirsty ones:

Annas
What then to do about Jesus of Nazareth?
Miracle wonderman, hero of fools

Priest
No riots, no army, no fighting, no slogans

Caiaphas
One thing I’ll say for him, Jesus is cool…

What then to do about this Jesusmania?
How do we deal with the carpenter king?
Where do we start with a man who is bigger
Than John was when John did his baptism thing?

But nevertheless, this is not a good way to start the week…

McCain has a point comparing Palin, Reagan

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Since I don’t watch those Sunday talk shows, I’m always reading the reactions, and reactions to reactions, on Monday (which is quite soon enough to suit me). Today I’m reading what Chris Cillizza has to say about what John McCain said on Sunday:

The Arizona Republican, responding to a question from CNN’s Candy Crowley about Palin being “divisive,” noted that Ronald Reagan was often seen as divisive as well.

It wasn’t a direct comparison to Reagan (McCain never said Palin is similar to Reagan), but it was a comparison nonetheless. And the reaction was swift, as it often is when it comes to Palin.

So the big question follows: Is it a valid comparison? The answer: In many ways, yes.

The fact is that Reagan has benefited tremendously from the years since his presidency, and people look back on him in a much favorable light than they did during his presidency.

According to Gallup polling data, Reagan’s average approval rating during his presidency was 53 percent — lower than John F. Kennedy,Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower and George H.W. Bush andBill Clinton.

As for the operative word here — “divisiveness” — Reagan had a claim to it. Many more Republicans approved of him than Democrats, and even at his peak, just 68 percent of Americans approved of him, a number lower than everyone but Richard Nixon over the last 65 years.

The reason Reagan couldn’t get higher than that was because there was a segment of the population, about one-third, that was dead-set against him. Reagan is often listed in polls of people’s favorite presidents, but because of that one-third, he’s also among the leaders for people’s least favorite presidents. His detractors often feel just as strongly as his supporters about Reagan’s legacy.

Recent polling shows Palin is on par with all of that…

Hey, it works for me. I, for the record, was among that one-third. And probably one of the more adamant members of that segment. My attitude has softened somewhat over the years, but that may be due to the 1984-style revisionism to which I’ve been subjected in media for more than two decades. You know, Ronald Reagan was a great president; he was always a great president — and we have always been at war with Eastasia. (Or would a better analogy be the sleep-teaching in Brave New World? Discuss.)

To the extent that I can clearly recall the past, I remember seeing Reagan — when he emerged on the national scene in 1976, then again in 1980 — as a destructive, negative, insurgent, dumbing-down force in the GOP. So yeah, a comparison to Sarah Palin is valid on those grounds.

Of course, after all these years of hearing what a great job he did, it seems a disservice to him to compare him to Mrs. Palin. One thing’s for sure, though — as a thoroughly professional actor, Reagan played the role of president with far greater dignity than I can imagine the ex-governor of Alaska managing to project.

Bill Cosby gets lost between Due West and North, South Carolina

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Some of y’all may have seen this video, but I had not until Stan Dubinsky shared it with me today.

Consider it a cautionary tale as you get on the road for Thanksgiving: Don’t take directions from the Cos, ’cause he’s confused.

In addition to North and Due West, Charleston, Beaufort and Bishopville are also featured.

Play ADCO’s “save-the-turkey” game

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Sorry I haven’t posted much this week, but I’ve been REALLY busy doing high-level, important stuff… such as sending out copies of the ADCO virtual Thanksgiving card to various folks from my contact list.

In case you didn’t get one, here’s a post about it on the ADCO blog, and I quote:

You think YOU’VE got it tough this Thanksgiving – what about the poor turkey? With the president too busy fielding questions about official airport groping this holiday season (and we are not making this up), the noble bird might not get the traditional pardon. Only you can save him! Help him collect enough balloons to get off the ground. Then you can gorge on Thursday with a clear conscience!

If you could get through the first level of Super Mario Brothers, you can save the turkey! Click here to play the game.

And yes! This is what we’ve been doing while you were working, you poor sap. You can thank us later…

Obviously, we decided against the usual static pieties and had a little fun. The game is the work of Giovianni Difeterici of ADCO Interactive.

And don’t be afraid to try it. It’s really easy. Your kids and grandkids will probably turn their noses up at it, as being far easier than, say, Super Mario Brothers circa 1980 something (but they would probably only make that comparison if they are into antique games). But I figure it’s just about y’all’s speed, if I’m right about my demographics. And if I’m not, get back to playing Black Ops and stop sneering at the rest of us…

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all…

But… um… she’s 48 years old…

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Mostly, I do a good job of ignoring celebrity “news.” I have been, for instance, only vaguely aware (and therefore vaguely appalled) that some people actually seem to care about some sort of scoring controversy on a dance competition show that involves the daughter of the former governor of Alaska.

But today, curiosity got the better of me, when I saw this item on Twitter:

Kelly Preston and John Travolta Welcome a Son http://bit.ly/g4ypDG (via @CelebCircuit) /via @CBSNews

Right away, I thought to myself that the sentence, “Kelly Preston and John Travolta welcome a son…” would continue, in the longer-than-Twitter format of a Web page, “… home from Afghanistan for Thanksgiving,” or some such.

Surely they didn’t… oh yes, they did:

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s baby Benjamin has arrived.

A publicist says the couple’s son was born Tuesday at an undisclosed Florida hospital. The baby weighed 8 lbs., 3 oz.

“John, Kelly and their daughter Ella Bleu are ecstatic and very happy about the newest member of the family,” the family said in astatement. “Both mother and baby are healthy and doing beautifully.”…

All right, then, surely they had this child via surrogate. Or he’s adopted. But no, apparently not.

Set aside the creepiness of a “replacement baby” so soon after their nearly-grown son died (another piece of celebrity news that made it through my defenses). John Travolta is… like… my age. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t actually high school-age when he made “Welcome Back, Kotter.”

And his wife — even though she’s a lovely, youthful-looking woman; don’t get me wrong here — probably isn’t all that much younger, if she was the mother of the boy who died.

Yep: She’s 48.

When I was her age, not only was I a grandfather, but my two sons (neither of whom was my oldest child) were 23 and 21.

There are all sorts of things I could say about wealthy celebrities thinking they can have anything they want, including their youth back, and what that implies for our society at large…

But I won’t. I’ll just say “mazel tov,” and walk away shaking my head…

November 22nd in Dallas, 47 years on

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Elections oracle Larry Sabato Tweeted this morning:

Eerie to be in Dallas on a November 22. Weather (early rain, clearing,sunny 70s) similar to 47 yrs ago. No formal commemoration.

So consider this your opportunity to share your memories of the day. And if you’re too young to have memories of day, well then who cares what you think? (Aw, now don’t go crying to your mommies about how mean the old man was to you…)

My favorite “Where were you?” story was the experience of Richard Nixon, which I read about once in a book about the 60s compiled by Rolling Stone. On this day 47 years ago, he was being driven through a residential neighborhood in an unfamiliar city, when suddenly a woman ran out of her house and looked around her desperately. She had just heard the news. Nixon, who had NOT heard the news, told his driver to stop. He got out of the car and walked toward the woman, asking whether he could be of any assistance.

The woman took one look at him, and then she really freaked out.

My own experience was atypical. I was out of the country, my Dad being stationed in Ecuador on U.S. Navy business.

We didn’t learn about it until later in the day. I was in the 5th grade at the Colegio Americano, which was way the other side of town. My bus ride home on Don Enrique (buses had names, and personalities) took about an hour. I was one of the last ones on the route. My best buddy Tony Wessler was dropped off six blocks before I was.

When I got home, I rang the doorbell at the security door at the foot of the stairs (we lived in the upstairs of a large duplex). My mom hit the buzzer, and as I started up the stairs I was startled to see Tony standing at the head of the stairs with Mom. What’s up? I asked. “The president’s been shot!” I kept walking up, and asked, “The president of what?” Mind you, I had already lived through one coup in Ecuador that year. So maybe there had been another, more violent, overthrow in a neighboring country.

“The president of the United States,” came the answer. So that was what had caused Tony to outrun the bus…

That hit hard. It was particularly strange to be in another country, as the dependent of a representative of the United States, and know that back home our president had just been killed, and we didn’t know why or by whom or what might happen next. (And mind you, since I was personally familiar with the potential instability of governments in a way that few Americans were, the feeling was intensified. “Seven Days in May” didn’t seem like such wild fiction to me.) It felt like being abandoned to fend for oneself. Wild thoughts went through my head. I thought of the .38-cal. revolver that my Dad kept on a shelf in my parents’ bedroom closet, which had been issued to him just in case. (I don’t think my Dad knew I knew it was there, but you can’t hide anything from kids.)

Then there was Kennedy himself, who personified the youthful strength, the can-do attitude, of my home country. If he could die, just like that… I had not been a big Kennedy supporter initially. For reasons I’ve written about elsewhere, I had been for Nixon in 1960, at the age of 7. But after that I had been fully co-opted into the whole P.T. 109/Camelot mystique, and was proud that JFK had various initiatives going on (to counter Castro, but I didn’t know that) to help Latin America, such as Alliance for Progress.

But not just expatriate Americans were shaken. I witnessed a generous mourning from Ecuadoreans, who identified with this Catholic president as they had no other. Our school yearbook for that year would have a dedicated page with the headline, “Kennedy Ha Muerto,” and a picture of the president and his bride and kids outside a church before or after Mass — Jackie wearing the obligatory veil on her head.

That was reassuring.

Anyway, that was my experience 47 years ago today.

And probably fewer than that even CARE (I hope)

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Catching up on stuff that grabbed my attention the last few days. For instance, there was this item about a Pew poll:

Poll: Less than half know GOP won the House

(CNN) – The Republican Party won decisive control of the House in this year’s midterm elections, but it appears less than half the country is aware of it.

According to a new Pew poll, only 46 percent of those surveyed correctly identified that the Republican Party won the House as a result of the November 2 elections. But it’s not all bad – 75 percent did know the Republicans performed better than the Democrats, it’s just that many aren’t aware exactly what the party won.

Fourteen percent thought the GOP won control of both the chambers, 8 percent thought Republicans won just the Senate, and 27 percent didn’t know one way or the other. Five percent meanwhile thought Democrats maintained control of both the House and Senate….

I raise this NOT to make the average guy sound like an idiot. I raise it to say that the average guy probably doesn’t care. And he’s right.

No matter how much the oversimplified media — which do their best to reduce everything in politics to a binary choice, like sports (if one team is up, the other team is down), and to naitonalize EVERYTHING — voters still, to some extent, vote for individuals, not parties.

At least I do, and it’s all about what I think, right?

But seriously — if you’re trying to choose between Candidate A and Candidate B, then that’s the choice you’re making. How many people outside the Beltway do you think actually think, “Golly, will Jim Clyburn still be able to be called Majority Whip if I chose this guy?” And if they do, well, they should lose their franchise…

NPR still having a problem with e-mail

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NPR is still having a trouble with e-mail. It doesn’t want to give out its journalists’ addresses.

I know. So last century. My kids don’t even DO e-mail, and haven’t for many years, because it’s so slow and indirect and retro. Or something (I confess I don’t fully understand the problem). It’s as though a film studio were still debating whether to take the plunge into VHS.

Don’t know about you, but a pet peeve of mine is going to anyone’s Web page — a business, a nonprofit, any kind of organization or even a personal endeavor such as a blog — and looking for a way to contact the key individuals, only to hit a wall. No e-mail address. Not even a phone number (for those just a step past smoke signals).

I’m not the only one this bugs. In fact, one of our neighbors right here in Colatown made it into an essay on the subject:

NPR does not publish staff email addresses.

It should.

About once a month someone writes to say they find it arrogant and standoffish for a news organization —that demands access to others — to not offer a common form of communication to its audience.

And it’s not always that a listener wants an email address to write a nasty note.

Sometimes they want to share information. Sometimes they want to ask a question, or even provide information to correct an error. Sometimes, they simply want to say “Nice job” directly to a reporter.

“Today I just wanted to tell the ‘A Blog Supreme’ producers-writers how important the blog has been to me,” wrote George Mack, of Columbia, SC., a listener for 20 years.

“However, there is no way to contact them except to post a public comment or to come to a black hole dialog box like the one I’m using this very moment,” he continued. “I’ve always thought this stand-offish concept was just plain arrogant and it gives rise to negative feelings.”

Right now if someone wants to get in touch with NPR via e-mail, they have to go to the “Contact Us” link and fill out a form. It will go to a news show, my office or an office called “listener services.”…

Amen to that, brother. I hate those forms. Whenever I click “contact us” and get a form to fill out, instead of an actual person’s e-mail address, I feel like the message is “Bug off.” Only with a different word in place of “Bug.” Even if that’s not intended, that’s what I receive.

Yes, I know e-mail is a hassle. It consumes too much time, and if you’re a reporter with a national medium, the flood will be Noahesque. But hey, figure out something. If that impersonal box “works” for managing the flood, it’s only because it discourages people from trying to make contact at all, thus reducing the volume.

Nowadays, public radio doesn’t need to be ticking off the listening, voting public. NPR shows great resourcefulness, thoughtfulness and creativity in presenting the news. Apply some of that to basic communcations, please.

And oh, yes. You can reach me at [email protected]. And I’ll get to it as soon as I can (usually same day). And there’s just me.

You’ve seen the movement; now wear the boot

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Nikki Haley and the Tea Party are inseparable, right? So what’s next?

Nikki Tea, the boot.

That’s right. It’s an actual product produces by Clarks. I learned about it from the Dillard’s ad on Page A10 of today’s paper. Or rather, my wife did. When she read it out to me, I thought she meant “Nickie T,” or something, but she said, no, Nikki like Haley and T-E-A like Tea Party.

Pretty freaky. Especially seeing as how I can’t imagine Nikki wearing anything that looked like that. Of course, before this year, I couldn’t have imagined her turning into a populist demagogue to win an election, so what do I know?

I would love to know how they came up with that name, or why they thought it described that boot. But I do know it’s pretty weird.

Spurrier: “It’s the first time we’ve ever had a game like this.” No kidding…

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Wow.

A little while ago, feeling like a wise guy, I Tweeted:

Hmmm… 35-0… I don’t want to get carried away with optimism or anything, but it looks like the Gamecocks might win this one… #adco

But mere moments later, the half arrives, and… it’s 56-7.

Fifty-six to seven. At the half.

I find myself wondering — if the second half is like the first… does the scoreboard go that high?

On his way off the field at the half, Steve Spurrier said, “It’s the first time we’ve ever had a game like this.”

Yup.

Wow.

When it comes to propaganda, give me humor every time (if it’s done well)

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A few days ago I had an e-mail exchange with Kathryn about that anti-bullying video that Cindy McCain did, which caused Kathryn to think Cindy was GREAT.

But I just found it stilted and stiff and painful to watch. Which I guess was the intent. But that painfully earnest message couched in politically correct clichés really made me not want to hear any more about the subject, however serious it is.

But then, a couple of days later, a colleague — Lora Prill at ADCO — brought to my attention the companion videos above and below.

Now — without getting into the merits of the issue either way — to me, THIS is the way to make the point. Whether I go away agreeing or disagreeing with the political point, at least I go away with a smile. And I’m therefore more predisposed to listen to these folks in the future.

Way to communicate there, guys.

Send your suggestions to Nikki

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A colleague pointed out to me where I could send my suggestions to Nikki’s “Fiscal Crisis Task Force.” So I went there, and right above the form, I saw this quote:

“This movement was never meant to be about a person.
It was never meant to be about an election.
This movement was about how we take our state and country back.”
Governor-elect Nikki Haley on election night

That immediately chased any suggestions I might have out of my mind, so instead of suggesting, I sent a question:

Who are we taking our state and country back from again? I’m still confused on that point…

Knowing the answer to THAT would help me know what to say.

My second favorite thing about this page was:

We need your help in reforming our state government.

Please send us suggestions below. We’d love to hear from you.

Really? You mean, you don’t know what needs doing, or how to go about it? And you think asking the average guy out there is the way to figure this out? I mean, I knew you’d gone populist, but really — have you ever gone out and conducted actual man-on-the-street interviews? I have. Do it once, and it will cure you of your delusions forever.

Strom is probably smiling, and so am I

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I don’t know Lisa Murkowski from Adam… OK, I could probably tell her from Adam, so let’s say Eve. As y’all know, I don’t put much stock in people who represent other states.

But I’ve got to think that somewhere Strom Thurmond is smiling, since she is the first person elected to the Senate on a write-in since he did it back when I was a baby. He would probably be particularly please that “a gal” did it, because he liked gals. Never mind that his way of congratulating her would probably have been to pat her on the bottom.

It pleases me as well because, while I know nothing about this woman or her positions, it’s another blow to the hegemony of the two parties. Yeah, I know it’s more widely seen as a blow to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, yadda-yadda, but the main thing to me is that it’s a victory for the UnParty. Just like Joe Lieberman’s big win back in 2006. Yeah, we had a setback with Crist down in Florida, but you can’t win ’em all.

Today’s meaningless coincidence: 3 Days of the Crowe

And oh, yeah — congratulations, Mr. Speaker

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Maybe this doesn’t mean a thing, but it struck me…

Remember when I told you yesterday about Bobby Harrell’s overwhelming re-election as Speaker? I mean, we had expected Nancy Pelosi’s coronation as Minority Leader, but Bobby’s win was much more convincing than hers. (Harrell won 112-5 over a challenger who had been much touted as representing Tea Party dissatisfaction with the speaker. Pelosi won 150-43 over a moderate who was never given much of a chance in the increasingly liberal Democratic caucus.)

Well, Gina Smith tweeted that out at 1:29 p.m. yesterday.

Today, at 4:42 p.m. — more than 27 hours later — I got this from Karen Floyd:

Dear Subscriber

Yesterday, State House Representative Bobby Harrell retained his leadership position as House Speaker with an overwhelming majority.

Speaker Harrell is a true conservative leader who will continue to honorably represent the ideals and values of South Carolinians. We are excited to have someone at the state house that will take the helm and guide us towards a brighter future.

For the next legislative session, you can be sure that more conservative reforms will be making their way through the legislature. Speaker Harrell will promote lower taxes and business incentives in the coming months, as well as strive to streamline state government to make it more efficient and effective.

After the enormous outcry from the people this past election season, it is imperative that we move toward smaller government and tighter spending controls. We are blessed to have a House Speaker who takes these matters seriously and will ensure that your trust was not misplaced.

Sincerely,

Karen Floyd

SCGOP Chairman

Why did that boilerplate, lukewarm-to-middling congrats take so long? Maybe it was just that there aren’t as many people on deck attending to business over at party HQ now that the election is over.

But in that wording — which flatly offers assurances that Bobby WILL obediently do what you “conservatives” out there want him to do, fear not — and in that timing, I sense a hesitation, a decision-making process: Should we congratulate him? If so, do we need to talk to him first and get certain assurances?

Maybe not. Maybe, since I’m on the outside looking in, I’m just reading too much between the lines. But I’m reminded of the way I felt on election night, during that eerie waiting period while we wondered when Nikki Haley would come out and give a victory speech. What, indeed, was going on backstage? (And when she appeared virtually alone, I wondered whether there had been some sort of debate in the wings as to whether anyone besides Henry would appear with her.)

But that had been a long day, and my imagination was overly active. Same thing today. Long day. Although not as long as the day that passed before this congratulations went out…

The reticence of heroes, and the nearest political equivalent

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If any man aspires to any office, he is sure never to compass it…

— Utopia, St. Thomas More

I was reading something the other day about heroes, and it got me to thinking about politicians. Odd juxtaposition, I realize, but bear with me…

There was a piece in The Wall Street Journal earlier this week about the first soldier since Vietnam to live to receive the Medal of Honor, Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta. It was the first thing I read about him; the column ran the day before the president presented the medal. And the columnist touched upon a common phenomenon we see with REAL heroes, as opposed to those who boast and brag of their exploits:

Not that he’s ready to be called a hero. “I’m not at peace with that at all,” he said on “60 Minutes” Sunday night. “And coming and talking about it and people wanting to shake my hand because of it, it hurts me because it’s not what I want. And to be with so many people doing so much stuff and then to be singled out . . .”

Sgt. Giunta’s words, of course, remind us that he does not need this ceremony. The ceremony is for the rest of us. It reminds us of the sacrifices made so we can sleep easy at night—and of the kind of fighting man our society has produced…

I know of little of war heroism beyond what I’ve read in books, but it’s interesting how often a true heroes’ story features his reluctance, even pain, at being singled out for praise and honor. He did what he did, and he’d do it again. But he really, really doesn’t want civilians who weren’t there making a fuss over him. Part of this is that he didn’t do it for THEM; he did it for his buddies who were there. But part of is a special kind of grace and nobility that few of us know. He didn’t feel heroic when he was doing it, and the memory doesn’t evoke good feelings of any kind. He was just, if you’ll excuse my language, dealing with the shit as well as he could.

He didn’t want the medal; he wanted his friends back.

And this reminds me of another sort of person that our society singles out for special recognition: political officeholders. And I think about how the very best candidate for any position would be a fully qualified person who would have the attitude toward service of a hero — someone who would be conscientious in the job, and do it well, but who wouldn’t want it.

Trouble is, we seldom get an opportunity to choose people like that. Most candidates who have any kind of chance are people who really, REALLY want the job, to an off-putting degree. Thomas More’s notion of people who seek offices being barred from holding them — or at least that’s the way I read Utopia — is indeed the stuff of fantasy.

Once, it was fashionable for candidates for high office to at least let on that they didn’t want it. It was unseemly to pursue overtly the office of, say, president of the United States. I seem to recall from my history that we were well into the latter part of the 19th century before presidential candidates personally went about asking people to vote for them. I wish we could return to such times, but we never will. Voters have grown accustomed to being begged to vote for candidates, and too few of us will even consider a candidate who doesn’t beg and plead and curry and pander harder than the others.

But you know what? On a certain level, Vincent Sheheen was that self-effacing, unassuming, almost reluctant sort of candidate — an accomplished, qualified, able individual who projected an air of being WILLING to serve as governor… but it wouldn’t be the end of the world to him if he lost. If you wanted him in the job, fine, he’d do his best. But if not… well, one got the impression that he was happy to go back to being the senator and small town lawyer and family man that he is.

That impression — a very subjective, hard-to-put-your-finger-on kind of thing, to the point that I never really spelled it out out loud — sort of bugged me during the campaign. I kept wanting him to run HARDER. To get the proverbial fire in the belly.

But in the end, I’d prefer to be governed by the kind of guy who ran the kind of campaign that Vincent did. Which is why I didn’t write a bunch of posts saying, “Run HARDER, Vincent!”

Trouble is, how does a guy like that ever get elected? Of course, he DID come close, so that’s something… Maybe there’s hope…

Yeah, this may seem far afield from the Medal of Honor winner. But my mind wanders like this…

bradwarthen.com

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