Christine and me

I once gave Christine O’Connor some free campaign advice. Nothing major, mind you, just a couple of lines she could use at candidate forums. On a scale of life-regrets, this equates to roughly a stubbed toe.  Looking back, I wish I had avoided it.

It was September 2014 and, from a communications perspective, she was busy underwhelming the crowd at every candidate event she attended.  Frankly, her over-reliance on platitudinous remarks annoyed me. I felt compelled to try to help her up her game, if only a little.   So I sent her an email which included the following:

“Relate it all back to a larger, future-oriented vision:

‘I know that the school operating budget is no mere ledger of data points, it is a statement about our values and about how best to educate our children.  I know what they need in the classroom and I will work to ensure that they have the tools they need to learn and grow and that, at the moment they turn the tassels on their graduation caps, they will be ready for college or the workforce.’"

I thought it would work with her voice, accessible…folksy even.  Sure enough, she used some version of that line shortly thereafter.

Flash forward to early 2017, and we see less of a "values” and “vision” focus.  Now, apparently, Ms. O’Connor has other concerns top-of-mind.  In a communication with the ironically monikered Howard County Hate Watch, she writes, “We need to get more about Christina.  What can I do?”

Nice “growth.” 

Suffice to say, she will be receiving no further counsel from these quarters.  Scratch that. I will offer up one more piece of advice: she should not run for re-election.  If we have seen her apogee, that just isn’t good enough for Howard County.  Public service isn’t for everyone…some folks just don’t have the “tools they need to learn and grow.”

Stay tuned, as more will follow.

Emails to a Middle Aged Curmudgeon

"On some grave questions, there is no difference to be split; one does not look for a synthesis between verity and falsehood; the sun does not rise in the east one day and in the west the next." - C. Hitchens

This, of course, is why it is a fool's errand to give credence to the smoke and mirrors arguments coming out of the Trump White House.  Half-truths, "alternative facts," off-the-cuff prevarications, and outright lies do not, and can not, constitute a governing philosophy in a Constitutional Republic.

Granted, the "reality challenged" have been growing in strength for some time...particularly within the entity which calls itself the Republican Party.  From the theocrats to the science-deniers, there are those who aren't willing to accept facts.  With the rise of alt-media, there is always a voice willing to support their world-views, no matter how disconnected they are from the world in which we actually live.

Isn't Mitt Romney looking much better these days?

This phenomenon is not limited to the current occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania...one can see examples of it right here in Howard County.  From the sad display over at Howard County "Hate Watch" to the vituperative No Sanctuary HoCo folks, there is a willful disregard exhibited toward reasoned debate.  Bluster and ad hominem attacks, with words as cudgels, are the order of the day with such sites.

It is difficult to seek to find a middle ground with those who possess such mindsets.  If one attempts to bargain in good faith and take the moral high ground, one might get submarined.

Perhaps it is a better use of time to wait until rational actors appear...real states-people and not poseurs.  In the meantime, one can look east every morning for the reliable sunrise.  That is a fact.

Stay tuned, as more will follow.