| |
Salve
for Election Bruises
by Peary Perry
|
|
By
the time you read this, the election will be over and hopefully the winner will
have been declared.
Or at least this is the way it should be.
However in today’s media driven world, who can predict what is going to happen
or might happen in the next few weeks? All of us are suffering from election fatigue
as a result of the past year of campaigning by both parties. I can’t think of
any other country in the world that has such a long period of time allocated to
the determination of who will lead us over the next four years. I suspect that
if you are at all like me, you are numbed and partially brain dead from all of
the statistics, poll numbers and blah, blah, blah we have been subjected to for
the past several months. Everywhere you look, you see signs of election zombies…citizens
walking around aimlessly with dark circles under their eyes from too few hours
of sleep. Neighbors have turned against one another as we headed into the home
stretch. We are reduced to discussing topics as bizarre as “are there really UFO’s”
and “who really discovered America” to avoid political arguments with our friends,
family and spouses.
Last week, we went to dinner with our next-door neighbors.
We are on different sides of this political war. We set the ground rules prior
to leaving the house. No politics. As I stated before this leaves you with very
little to talk about over the course of a long meal. Not that we were desperate,
but about half way through the dinner, somehow we got off on trying to remember
the words to “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” We got stuck on the fourth day…what
was it? No one could remember this one…”On the fourth day of Christmas…. my true
love gave to me” ….What? . We all had items one, two and three and some of the
others, but for the life of us couldn’t get item number four.
We did
maids milking, swans swimming, lords leaping, drummers drumming and five gold
rings, but no item number four for the life of us. The wait staff became curious
and asked us to explain. We did and soon all the waiters and waitresses along
with the cooks were either signing or humming the same tune trying to figure out
what happened on day four. Our meal was being constantly interrupted with suggestions,
all to no avail.
Finally I called a friend of mine who is a trivia buff
and he quickly questioned how could we have forgotten that there were…”four calling
birds”? End of the mystery. Then he asked if we could remember the names of the
seven dwarfs. This was enough to get us through the rest of the meal. I think
we got most of them correct, but am still uncertain that Sleazy and Sneaky were
part of the original group.
This is America at it’s best. We should all
get down on our knees and thank God we live in a country that allows us to have
the freedom to vote, the freedom to speak our own minds and the freedom to state
our opinions. The current elections show we are almost equally divided in our
thinking. This isn’t a bad thing in my mind. It is a mechanism that should help
to keep us honest and to know that someone out there is always watching what those
in power are doing on a daily basis. Or those who want to be in power.
We
as a nation are relatively young by history standards, but we have shown the world
that we can agree to disagree and still be one nation after all is said and done.
This has not always been the case in other countries of the world. In fact in
the early days of our nation it was widely suspected that the incoming party would
assassinate the members of the outgoing party. As we know this has rarely happened.
Perhaps never.
Well, now we can get back to the business at hand and
look forward to four more years of listening to the pundits share their views
with us on how smart they were or how misled they were. Thank God for Sponge Bob…he
has yet to make any political comments.
I wonder if my neighbors even
know who Sponge Bob is?
© Peary Perry
Comments go to pperry@austin.rr.com
Letters
From North America | | |
