Entry #614871, added on 10-08-11 @ 12:23 am EDT
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| (Ulteriorly article 4) If I were king of the world | Entry #614871 |
The thing about being a Libertarian is, when someone steals your yard sign, you don't know who to blame, the Republicans or the Democrats. But it did make me feel good to think that at least one of them sees us as a threat.
I try not to brag on my kids, but they make it difficult. Anyway, it's actually on topic this time, so bear with me.
I have a couple of very talented young musicians in the house. The elder is a double bass player (who also plays piano and electric bass guitar). He is hard at work this year (as a high school senior) preparing to apply to various and sundry good music schools with an eye on getting a performance degree. We're very proud of him.
Every year, his school district holds what they call the 'String Fest', a concert featuring one or two numbers from the leading orchestras of the various schools in the district with music programs. They march through the elementary schoolers, to the middle schoolers, and finally end up with my son's orchestra, the top orchestra in the Fine Arts magnet for the district. It's a real treat if for those of us who enjoy watching kids doing their best with fine music.
I've always, from the first year my eldest began playing, enjoyed sitting through the whole concert, watching first year students fumble their way through 'Mary had a little lamb' all the way up to the Honors magnet orchestra performing pieces out of the professional repertoire. (Sadly, they start with second year students now. They used to have the beginners.) And I've always been disturbed to watch the parents of younger kids jump up and grab their kids as soon as their orchestra finished, rapidly thinning the audience so that the littlest ones played to a packed house.and the finest musicians played only to their own parents (and one or two others like me.)
Now that my son is in that top orchestra, it began irking me more. Last week, we had that concert. Watching these people leaving with their kids, I fought the urge to jump up, grab them and yell, "Sit back down! I watched your kid! Stick around and watch mine!"
And of course the thought occurred to me once again, "If it were me running this thing, their kids would be required to stay and watch the whole concert, like the oldest kids have to do! It would be good for them!"
Then it hit me. How incredibly un-Libertarian. After all, I wasn't watching their kids as a responsibility, I was doing it because I love watching the little guys doing something so well, something they've put so much effort into. I'm watching for the same reason people like watching the kids who they bring in on 'Dancing with the Stars'. It makes you feel good about the future, to know kids like these will be around to look after it.
We, every single one of us, have at some point thought "If I were in charge, things would be done right!" The 'if I ruled the world' moment is as human as it gets. Only, we almost always think of what we would make the rest of the world do.
So do the people we actually do put in charge. They think about what they're going to make the rest of us do.
I read through the Democratic and Republican party platforms last night. I try to do this once in a while, although I'm not quite sure why. It's an exercise in futility.
The Dems were crying their hearts out over the many many unfairly disadvantaged of our nation, and blaming it all on the President and his buddies. It seems an awful lot of people need to learn how to do things the right way, and an awful lot of corporations need to change their ways and do things the right way, and their solution? Tax breaks and spending and more tax breaks and more spending.
Oh, and by the way, they're going to be fiscally responsible.
The Reps were very defensive about everything they've done and ever scornful of Democratic opposition to their policies and accomplishments. They ended several of their sections with a position that, when stripped of clever language, basically promised nothing except, "We will steadfastly oppose Democratic attempts to oppose us." I wonder if they know how ironic that is.
Then they spent a very long time detailing the world, area by area, in many cases country by country, and how those people needed to do things differently, and how the United States ought to be making sure they do things differently. And then they talked about how corporations were all hamstrung by the Democrats and unable to do the right thing like they would if they only could, and how the Republicans were going to fix this.
How? Tax breaks and spending and more tax breaks and more spending.
Oh, and by the way, they're going to be fiscally responsible.
If I hadn't needed to wake up for church this morning, I think I would have broke into that bottle of tequila in the cupboard. I really needed a drink. I managed to rise above the urge, but it wasn't easy.
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