peeves

Knock-Knock. Housekeeping!

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment

I put the “Privacy” sign up on my door this afternoon because I was working and hadn’t messed the room up enough or used enough towels to require housekeeping. A little after noon, someone quietly slipped a card under the door, basically saying that in order to respect my wishes not to be disturbed, they would be unable to service my room — but that if I needed anything, to please call housekeeping by 3 p.m.

Very nice, right?

So at 2:30 p.m., I’m still working away, and — knock-knock-knock — ‘”Housekeeping?”

Huh?

I start for the door. Knock-knock-knock — ‘”Housekeeping!”

I get to the door, and the voice says to someone else, “Oh, there’s someone here.”

Yup.

I open the door. She has a manager’s nametag and my privacy sign in her hand. “I’m sorry, sir — are you checking out today?”

“Nope. Not until tomorrow.”

“And do you need service for your room?”

“Nope. Everything’s fine.”

“Okay!” she says, and smiles, handing me my privacy sign.

It’s not that my privacy was that important — but what’s the purpose of the sign and note?

Pre-Election Rant-A-Day 8: VOTE!

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment

Blogger’s Note: This will be my final rant, for awhile, at least. To tell the truth, I finding the Rant-A-Day format completely exhausting. Not sure I’ll even be able to muster a little righteous indignation tomorrow, which is a pity, especially when watching election returns. I don’t know how the cable pundits do it day after day…

I had another long, ranting rant planned on a whole other topic loosely related to the election. But no. Just vote tomorrow. Vote as if you life depended on it, because maybe one day it will. Vote because someone fought and died so you could. Vote because someone fought and died because they couldn’t. Vote because your kids need that example. Vote because they need a future only you can give them.

Don’t like the major-party candidates? Me neither. Vote third-party, then. Don’t want to throw your vote away (or don’t like the third-party folks either). Me neither. Pick one. Hold your nose and have an opinion. (And next time, consider running!)

Want to gripe about the sad state of politics and government. Vote. Want to change the direction of a nation? Vote. Don’t miss this opportunity. Don’t cede power. Don’t give up control. Read up, get up, line up, vote.

Or don’t come cryin’ to me.

Pre-Election Rant-A-Day 7: Most Politics Should Be Local

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment

Blogger’s Note: One more rant after this one, If I can get it together. Feel free to look at the past six, as well, and comment if you like. Or not.

“Excessive intervention by the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which ‘a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.'”

— Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 1883

It’s worth looking at the larger context of the quote above before Election Day — it’s food for thought whether you’re Catholic or not. Of particular interest is paragraph 1881 — “Each community is defined by its purpose and consequently obeys specific rules; but ‘the human person . . . is and ought to be the principle, the subject and the end of all social institutions.'” — and paragraph 1885: “The principle of subsidiarity is opposed to all forms of collectivism. It sets limits for state intervention. It aims at harmonizing the relationships between individuals and societies. It tends toward the establishment of true international order.”

Subsidiarity, according to Dictionary.com, means two things, both of which I am personally partial to:

  1. (in the Roman Catholic Church) a principle of social doctrine that all social bodies exist for the sake of the individual so that what individuals are able to do, society should not take over, and what small societies can do, larger societies should not take over
  2. (in political systems) the principle of devolving decisions to the lowest practical level

What we’re talking about, essentially, is local control. Who better than ourselves and our neighbors to solve the problems in our back yards? Who better to rally around the new mother, the unemployed father, the sick child, than friends and family, church and community? Why on earth should we send so much of our resources half a nation eastward to be reallocated when we have plenty to do here at home, and plenty of smart folks with similar goals to do it?

We waste so much time, energy, and money on the national campaigns and the race for governor, and too often can’t name our local reps, school board and city council members, or mayor. We want them to have our backs, but we vote for the state and national policymakers who pass the laws that tie their hands. Those in power take money out of local communities; local communities can either raise property taxes, cut services, or both; and we complain no matter what. Is it any wonder that our local officials who go on to state or national office mold themselves into professional politicians? It’s because that’s what we reward! We expect their service and support for local priorities, and are outraged when they fail or fall…but where are we the rest of the time? How many of us will go to the polls on Tuesday, look at the local races and vote for the two or three people we might know (or whose names we might recognize) and vote “incumbent” or party lines for the rest?

I’m as guilty as most: My big step forward in the last year or so was to cancel our once-a-week subscription to the Sunday edition of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and reinvest a portion of that money into our local weekly, the North Crow River News. I’m slowly beginning to know who’s who and to get involved in community service at home, instead of at work in the Twin Cities. But I still wouldn’t know our mayor by sight and couldn’t name a single city councilperson.

Former Speaker of House Tip O’Neil is credited with the adage, All politics is local. In truth, politics should be local — but these days, most of politics looks coastal and feels feudal. We need to take personal interest in our local elections and vote to keep as much control as we can here at home. We should take care of our own.

Pre-Election Rant-A-Day 6: The Spin Cycle

/ J. Thorp / 2 Comments

Blogger’s Note: Been too good a day today for much of a rant. But for consistency’s sake…

I got another mailing from a candidate today, and two voicemails. Same thing as yesterday, basically. Yesterday was this: a political mailing featuring a lovely smiling woman who received an A from the NRA, and a frowning, shouting woman who received an F from the NRA. Brendan saw it, and was amused when I pointed out that, apparently, beautiful happy people support gun rights, and ugly mean people don’t.

Bren looked at the two photos and quickly added, “Plus, if you don’t support gun rights, you’re black and white.”

We live in a solidly Republican district. Bachmann’s district. Emmer’s district. So yesterday we also got a mailing from our perennial Democratic candidate for state Senate. Interesting: She was pictured in blaze orange, shooting a pump shotgun. She highlighted her high school, including the word “Archbishop” in big bold letters. And nowhere did it mention that she’s a Democrat.

Photoshop and soundbites, instead of clarity and ideas. This stuff must work on some voters, but I’ve done PR and marketing work. These days, the spin makes me nauseous.

Pre-Election Rant-A-Day 5: Stop Yelling and Say Something!

/ J. Thorp / 1 Comment

Blogger’s Note: The Rant-A-Day blitzkrieg continues. Check the past few days to see what’s got me going.

I have a hard time voting. I love the concept. I love the sense of civic duty, the solemnity of the retiree election judges. I love having voted, and watching the returns roll in. But I’m a visceral guy — I trust my gut, and it doesn’t respond well to well-oiled answers and million-dollar smiles. So the voting booth often feels like a trap.

If you’ve been reading these rants, you may be thinking that I lean to the right, politically speaking. That’s true enough — although I voted for candidates from four different political parties in the 2008 election, I’m getting progressively more conservative (see what I did there?). My good friend Jinglebob, whose Dennis Ranch blog is to the right of here (literally and politically), once told me, “If you’re not liberal when you’re young, you’ve got no passion…and if you’re not conservative when you get older, you’ve got no sense.”

Not long after that, another friend described me as an “old soul.” There you have it. Storm’s comin’…feel it in my knees…

So yeah, I lean right. The only thing that keeps me from tipping over completely is that it seems like too many Republicans have forgotten that there is a conservative intellectual tradition* that is deeper than the handful of talking points they’ve memorized, and actually could be employed to change minds and solve problems. (Yes, that’s right: you can be a conservative intellectual; they just don’t give you a talk show.) The folks on the Left like to describe the Democrats as the Party of Ideas and the Republicans as the Party of No. I think they’re half right on both counts — I see the two as the Party of Bad Ideas and the Party of No Ideas. I often disagree with our Democratic candidates’ approach to issues, but the Republicans rarely get specific enough for me to make an informed judgment about their approach.

I guess I’m supposed to trust that we’re like-minded, provided the candidates are minded at all.

And this year in Minnesota, politicians and newspapers of all stripes are endorsing the Independence Party candidate, who, according to the Dems, is a once and future Republican in disguise, and according to the Republicans, is only Right relatively speaking, insofar as he is right of the Left. He seems completely rational, has a balanced approach to every issue, and appears to be personally principled and professionally pragmatic. Perfectly positioned to appeal to the thinking public.

I can’t stand that: Where do you stand, sir? Right here in the middle. What’s your opinion? Well, I can see both sides. We should do this AND that.

Peachy. Except everybody can’t be right and everybody can’t win all the time. Too much compromise is the same as “It’s all good.”

Where are the lines you won’t cross?

I am a conservative, and a Christian, but not a “Christian Conservative” as it is popularly understood. I am a Catholic, but what does that mean, come Election Day? Does it make me a “one-issue” voter? I suppose it would, if I were a one-issue Catholic. What most people — many Catholics, even — don’t understand or have forgotten is that the Catholic Church also has a rich intellectual tradition, rooted in philosophy, and history, and (dare I say?) science — a tradition that, once understood, suggests new ways of thinking, new solutions to problems, and even new responsibilities for believers, both in their public and private lives.** We like to wear our various faiths like badges of honor, and point to those on the outside as the problem — but in truth, our beliefs make demands primarily of us. And the same holds true of the candidates.

My point? It’s easy to spout off. The donkeys bray; the elephants trumpet; and no one moves an inch. I lean right, and further every day, but my vote’s not guaranteed. I do my homework as best I can. I’ll vote third-party to have a clear conscience.

So stop shouting — I can hear you even with my hearing aid turned down. I know what you’re saying. Now tell me what you’re thinking. AR-TIC-U-LATE something. Let me in on the plan. If you need my vote, convince me. And if you don’t need me, stop junking up my mailbox with oversize postcards that say the same thing as last week.

Now get off my lawn.

—

* As a teen, I lived 5 miles or so from a big old mansion in the tiny village of Mecosta, Michigan. Rumor was that an eccentic old writer lived in that house. When Jodi and I bought our first house in Mecosta after we married, we lived just a few blocks from the mansion, and the old writer’s widow invited us to dinner. Russell Kirk: Father of American conservatism, with a little Gothic fiction on the side. And I left town and went to Yale…

** Kirk was Catholic.