I frequent a coffee shop near the Michigan state capitol. Each day some mix of legislators, lawyers, lobbyists, law students, and state workers gather here.
As I sit reading and drinking coffee, I overhear some of their conversation. Puffery, earnest pleading, non-committal blather, misdirection, misperception, lies and the occasional truth—I hear it all. This is the sausage being made. What goes on across the street, under Elijah E. Myer’s dome is merely the packaging and sales.
As a bald guy in a polo shirt, chinos and without an id tag the suits ignore me. Like much of the “public” they claim to serve I am practically invisible—not worth a look or nod.
The aroma of the brewing coffee is robust but not enough to overcome the odor of Rome burning while these fiddlers fiddle. Sometimes I want to interrupt their reveries and tell my story. But I don’t. It would be pointless. These folks thrive on stories—playing one against the other—taking pieces from many and weaving them into their own self-serving monologues—smoke and mirrors—fine talk—more evasion, escape and abdication of any real responsibility.
Perhaps it is the inescapable and imposed mediocrity of the committee process that assures that nearly anything decided and implemented by government will be inelegant, inefficient, ineffective and counterproductive. Or perhaps it is the nature of politics that the only thing of importance to a politician is getting elected and staying in office—whatever it takes.
I say to hell with all these overpaid sophists in their patent leather, pinstripes and navy blue—on whose watch the economy has gone into free fall, millions have lost their jobs, millions more have no health care and thousands of young men and women have been sent to their deaths fighting in wars without end and specious justification.
Where is their compassion? Where is their competence? Where is their sense of responsibility to all those they cajoled, coerced and duped into voting for their empty promises? Where is their conscience?
In fairness I do thank the few politicians and lawmakers who from their genuine desire to help others and make the world a better place willingly endure the idiocy, blindness, greed, brutality, ignorance, vanity, and selfishness of the rest. Yet I question their effectiveness—their lone voices howling in the mass-media wilderness—I think of the likes of Representative Dennis Kucinich, made to look radical for being compassionate and sensible.
Sadly, so many of our elected, appointed, and purchased representatives labor under the mistaken belief they have a mandate, when in fact most are in office by default—because most Americans have given up on the political process, convinced it really doesn’t matter who is elected because this is really the United States of Corporate Interests and Banking.
We who are concerned with serious questions of life, meaning, compassion and caring have learned to expect little from politics and politicians. And maybe this is a blessing. Self-sufficiency and real community may be our only salvation. Perhaps, with the the internet and the trends toward community supported agriculture, organic foods, bartering and the like, we will soon devolve into so many tribal affiliations that state and national government will be unable to tax us into bankruptcy and send our children to wars to protect corporate interests.
© Michael Maurer Smith 2009
I can’t tell you how much better this post makes me feel. It’s a simple fact that, no matter where I’ve turned in past weeks, no one seems to be hearing my voice, or the voices of the majority of the people I know. You’ve expressed many of my feelings, beautifully.
I’ve found few places to talk about the issues in a measured manner. In some ways, there isn’t a lick of differenc between Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman. The use of ridicule, stereotyping,and name-calling is widespread across both ends of the political spectrum.
In the process, the anxieties, fears and confusions of the American people are being brushed aside as though of no account. At precisely the moment I heard officials making the calculated turn from “health care reform” to “health insurance reform”, I felt as though I were watching a disaster beginning to happen.
Yes, I think there are troublemakers abroad in the land, some of them at those Town Hall meetings. Yes, I believe some voices belong to “true believers” of both parties or none, people who are concerned primarily with maintaining their world view and their place in the pecking order.
But I also know for a certainty that some of those shrill voices belong to folks who understand that once done, undoing will be nearly impossible. They want to understand, but no one has helped them understand, and they are afraid.
Reform of our health care system and restoration of our economy should be possible. but many people understand that destruction of both also is possible if care is not taken. Your point about the importance of self-sufficiency and real community is well-taken. The mutual aid societies so common among immigrants and workers in my grandparents’ day may find new value.
Just now, I’m simply waiting, and giving thanks that my own mother probably will escape the worst consequences of whatever emerges. Unlike my British friend who was denied a pacemaker recently because she is “too old” (83), my mother has her pacemaker, her stent, and her health. She also has me, and if anyone tries to mess with her, they’ll have me to answer to.
Linda: I sat down intending to write a very different piece but this is what came out.
These are confusing and frustrating times, filled with opportunity and the potential for disaster. I only hope people begin to regain a sense of proportion and compassion. The notion that we can afford everything except universal health strikes me as incredibly cynical. I simply do not understand why the health of all our citizens isn’t the paramount concern and reason for government. It we continue to reward the greed, incompetence and outright criminal behavior of the CEO’s and corporate boards, and accept governance by so many self-serving and uncaring politicians, I fear it will not be long before this county comes apart completely.
Just a little p.s. I was involved last night in a discussion of these issues with an assortment of folks.
Near the end of the evening one of them said, “When are these people going to figure out that the issue of health care is supposed to be about taking care of people and not scoring political points.”
That seems to me to say it all. As you note, compassion and a sensible approach to medical care ought to belong in here somewhere.
Bravo, Mike. Well said, and eloquently. (And I am in total agreement with Linda, too, especially the part about “When will they figure out it’s about taking care of people…”)
Sometimes our whole political system just embarrasses me. The system, as designed, not bad. As executed, not good.