statesmanship

Chris Knight's avatar

A longtime friend is currently running for office.  Tonight on Facebook I left a comment to him.  It was worth making a post all its own, since this is such a political season.  If you ever wondered where I am coming from politically, this passage from the man who was the grandfather figure in my life puts it more succinctly than anything I could come up with on my own.  So I think it’s well worth sharing here too.

From chapter 12 of my book Keeping the Tryst:

At last Eagle was within sight.  For my project I chose to build receptacles for the trash cans at Camp Saurakee, a place for people with severe mental disabilities.  The receptacles would keep the cans stationary, without being a safety hazard if they were knocked around in bad weather.  I made the receptacles, and we delivered them to the camp two ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

We deserve better.  We should have demanded better.  We should have had higher expectations from those who asked to be entrusted with crafting laws, with the public treasury, with judicial integrity, with command of the military.

Let’s stop the bullcrap and be honest.  I mean, SERIOUSLY honest.  With an election looming in the next few days here in the United States, we have been incrementally conned and conditioned to have practically nobody to cast a vote for other than smooth-talkers and snake-oil salesmen.  Incumbents and challengers ready willing and able to sell their soul for a little scrap of power… and fools that we are, we seem only too willing to give it to them.  Sometimes I wonder if most of us like being treated with such contempt by those who allege to serve we the people.

In short: we have a surplus of politicians and too damned few statesmen...

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