Yesterday I was listening to a call-in show on our local public radio station. The guest was one of our senators, Bernie Sanders. He's very accessible as are our other delegates, Senator Pat Leahy and Congressman Peter Welch. All three frequently submit themselves to similar call-in type shows on local radio and television programs, and they and their staff are good about responding to calls, emails, and letters.
I have not often taken advantage of their gracious recipience. I'm always surprised when I hear them talk about Vermonters coming up to them on the street to ask or talk about issues. I wonder what on earth I would say if trapped in an elevator with one of them, or worse: Barack Obama. The problems facing the U.S. are so huge and complicated, how does anyone know what to say when given the opportunity?
To be honest, I think I would just burst into tears. I voted for these men (Sanders and Leahy in multiple elections). I feel they do a good job. I trust them, but at the same time I have to acknowledge the terror and willing blind faith behind that trust. They stand between me and incomprehensibly frightening fates. I am on a boat in a vast, terrible sea and I need to believe that the captain and crew know how to keep me safe and dry.
I feel so scared all the time, and I think that's what would bubble up if I was ever face to face with my elected officials. I'm afraid because of all the more practical aspects of politics I don't have any hope of ever understanding - economic theories, bills that are hundreds or thousands of pages long, the intricacies of law in a constitution-based federal republic, the reams of scientific data that opposing sides present to prove or disprove anything. I don't find all of the simplistic similes, animations, and "in a nutshell" summaries comforting. Everyone talks about these issues, vomiting up little bits of rhetoric they picked up from the media. But nobody seems to sincerely and thoroughly understand.
I'm afraid of all the philosophical and personal aspects of government that have no legal explanation - public policy being based on Judeo-Christian beliefs, good politicians' careers being ended by politically irrelevant tabloid scandals, people on all sides lying and acting like selfish children. Why is it okay for some people to impose idiosyncratic religious standards onto everyone else?
I'm afraid about Iraq and Afghanistan. Why doesn't anyone know the best approach to these regions? Why does it seem like we just keep senselessly throwing troops at the problems without any viable plan or strategy? I think about all the men and women who have died overseas. They will never see their families again, or their home towns. I think about the people who have come back, some of them forever altered in ways the rest of us could never understand. It's too huge and terrible and makes me desperately afraid for them.
I'm afraid about health care. I have chronic, incurable health problems and without daily medication, access to lab facilities, and the attendance of physicians, I will die. My immune system will attack my internal organs and I will die. I can't possibly understand these voluminous plans that everyone is fighting about, not that I could do anything about them if I could. I just have to trust that Bernie and Pat and President Obama have me somewhere in mind as they move forward.
What else can I do?
6 comments:
When I was 16, my friend Claire got her mother's car and we went to the Ben and Jerry's fest. It was one of the first non-chaperoned events we did, and we were all giddy with the freedom that comes from being 16 and having access to a car. The catch was that we had to bring her 13 year-old brother, Gus. But Gus was pretty hip--for a 13 year-old--so we didn't sweat it too much.
We all piled into the tent where you are encouraged to write postcards to your elected officials. In return, you get a free ice cream cone. We all worked very hard on our clever and witty postcards, and when we were finished, read them aloud. We were all sufficiently amused and impressed with our own wit, when Claire turned to her brother and said "What does yours say, Gussy?"
He paused, cleared his throat, scared and embarrassed. "Dear President Clinton," he started. "Are you really trying your hardest? Concerned citizen, Gus Silverman." There was a moment of silence as we all appreciated that Gus had won the contest of Best Postcard to an Elected Official.
I think I'd ask Barry that. Are you really trying your hardest? Cause I need you to. Thanks. Concerned citizen.
Good one. Thanks Gus, wherever you are. And thank you, Brooke.
I do think the Big O is trying his hardest. And unlike Bush (who lived in a presidential cocoon), at least Obama appears to take these decisions seriously, to weigh the consequences and own up to the outcomes.
it is SO fucking scary Molly, how right you are. I can't even imagine fighting this fight in the US Senate. But I agree that Leahy and Sanders are the dudes for the job.
egads, back to my hole in the ground.
I have a strategy for Afghanistan. It's slightly unorthodox, but it would work. I gamed it out to my long-suffering wife, who told me to find a foreign policy "sugar daddy." I guess I'm in the right town.
These are very scary and trying times... not the worst the world has ever seen though and try to remember (as I would assume with the fact that you vote and that you vote for people who it seems give a shit) that along with all the bad things that might happen or are happening there is still hope coming from the select few! Thankfully for you, Vermont is one of the rare (but hopefully getting less rare) places where there are politicians who actually live to serve the people.
I wish there was more I could do to gain some sense of empowerment. I vote, I participate, I try to keep myself educated, I've volunteered hundreds of hours in community strengthening programs like restorative justice. But it never feels like enough.
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