Party Bosses
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As a lifelong democrat it has become increasingly more difficult for me to understand my party, especially the local Franklin County Democratic party. In all honesty it is too far to the left for me to comprehend and in short, way too liberal. I don't know whatever became of the middle ground but there doesn't seem to be one anymore on either side; nonetheless, there are many of us who still believe that meeting somewhere in the middle of disagreements is best for everyone when one side refuses to budge. Most main-stream republicans are even worse with their extreme right wing agendas that I find impossible to embrace or even trust. So that leaves me scrutinizing all of the candidates more than I wish I needed to, looking for self serving hidden agendas that offer someone like me nothing while promoting ideas that I will be forced to live with even when they go against everything I ever believed in or hoped would someday come to fruition.
What I am seeing in my own party is a bitterness toward anyone who isn't on-board with every liberal idea they want to shove down everyone's throats, even when it is something that goes against ones faith or upbringing. There are no Teddy Roosevelt's, Ronald Reagan's or even Barry Goldwater's left in the red circles and neither are there any FDR's or JFK's under the blue tents anymore. Most of the time we only have a choice between extremes. We can vote against them both but all that usually does is make a statement, it doesn't elect better candidates because those people usually have no chance of actually winning elections.
On May 5th Columbus has an opportunity to reject what the big- money party bosses on both sides have offered as choices for our next mayor because there are actually two democrats running who have stood up to them and said enough is enough. James Ragland and Zach Scott are the only two in this race that are offering any kind of change in how we select our leaders and how either will govern if elected mayor. I am as sick as they are of the cycle of being told how to think or how to vote by the democratic bosses and I resent them for calling Mr. Scott a mud-slinger simply because his ideas are not in lockstep with every extreme liberal idea they have; especially after receiving a mailed piece of propaganda from them that unfairly questioned Scott's reputation. In short they implied that because he had enough grit to question what they have been getting away with for decades that he isn't what they call a good democrat.
I couldn't disagree with them more; the fact that he is willing to speak his true feelings and offer an alternative is exactly what I have always believed in as a democrat. If we don't question the status quo when it is no longer working or when it disrupts other good intentions than what have we become? When did the democrats take it upon themselves to discourage anyone outside its closed circles from wanting to contribute? I admire people for wanting to participate in their government and as a democrat I always believed that more people should.
The sleazy mailer I received that asked me to join them in blocking anyone from challenging them was an affront to my ability to know what might be best for me. That took a lot of unmitigated gall and it lessened any respect I might have had for the chairman as well as the entire party. It was made of hard stock and was printed in color with a glossy finish and clearly a lot of dollars were spent on the production as well as the postage to get it out. What a waste!
But that's how it goes in politics; all is in fair when trying to control elections becomes job one. Two of the 4 major candidates in this mayoral election will advance to the November election regardless of their party affiliation and one of them isn't likely to be the lone republican who is running because their local organization has been in shambles for years and it appears they didn't think this one out any more clearly than they have others in recent years. I hope that the two democrats who do go forward are Mr. Ragland and Mr. Scott, because the one with the most money to spend in this election is only offering more liberal policies than we have had to struggle with over the past 15 years. Nothing against all liberals, but this is a new agenda that has never existed in my lifetime, one that leaves 2/3rds of us out and offers nothing to anyone who can see two sides of any argument.
The hand-picked party endorsed candidate, Andy Ginther is young enough to be led by his bosses and his statements to date are indicative that he will carry out every liberal agenda they tell him to because he always has in the past as a city council member. They are gambling millions of dollars that he will emerge from the primary as one of two challengers for the final decision in November, but he has already tilted his cards and given us a peek of what we can expect if we select him, just a puppet whose strings will be pulled by the man who no longer wants to be mayor of Columbus, but who still wants to control the office, Mike Coleman.
Good luck to Zach Scott and James Ragland in their quest to represent everyone instead of just a few pockets of society that Mr. Ginther has promised to be there for. I can bend a little to meet somewhere in the middle with the far left liberals who are now running the party, but I cannot surrender my soul and allow them to have it all without being held accountable for shady backroom deal making that cost tons and tons of our money, and without offering something good for us all in return.
Less than 20 years ago I began hearing how we were losing more than one thousand World War ll veterans every day and it left a sobering effect on my own thoughts regarding mortality. In the grand scheme of time none of us really have that much of it from beginning to end and when someone we care about dies it is a wake-up call that we probably squandered a lot of it by not spending more time with them when we had the chance. My parents were from that generation and 20 years ago I wasn't giving much thought about them dying anytime soon, but 18 years ago my mother did and a year and a half later my dad followed. When they were both gone it left a void in my own life that will never be filled.
My work as a writer and publisher is packed with reminisces of growing up in an era that had little in common with the one I am currently navigating through and that includes most of the people around me now. Sometimes I wonder if I have lived too long and when I do the idea of rejoining my parents and the countless others I cared about who have passed on isn't that troubling to me. I have a friend who lives in Romeo, Michigan who is in his 90s and I recall when I first met him more than 35 years ago he talked about looking forward to the day he would die, but it wasn't about being fed up with living as much as it was about wanting to experience what he believed would be a better place in the after-life. All of these years later he still feels the same way and the last time we spoke he said he was disappointed that he has lived this long because now that he is as old as he is he feels used up, no longer relevant to anyone and because the aches and pains he feels now are worse than he ever expected them to be.
He was a Hell-raiser when he was a younger man and he misses that Hell. He was a hard drinker and a chain-smoker most of his life when he was able to afford both and when he had the freedom to go out and indulge, and he was a promiscuous man who looked for and usually found opportunities to quench those desires anytime he felt the urge. Having reached an age a long time ago where none of that is possible anymore has left him with a feeling of loneliness that is easy for me to relate to when I think of all things that I can no longer freely do. Age takes away so much more than good health and exciting desires, it can rob us of our self confidence and it becomes more and more difficult to get any of it back when a younger generation looks at us and shows a reaction; it is usually one of disinterest or an expression that they would rather avoid us and just move on to someone, or something else.
When that happens we are left standing in a place that no longer seems familiar, surrounded by people we don't understand and who don't understand us and wondering what we can do to fit in with a world we used to have a bigger stake in.
My old friend boasted that he had slept with more than one thousand women "before his gears ran dry and could no longer be greased"...that is how he speaks and I still get a kick out of hearing him talk that way even if the rest of the world around me might find such utterances offensive. The humor I found then and still find in my friend is that he talks of bad behavior as if it is a good thing while quoting passages from Scripture. Some might think of him as a hypocrite but to me he is no more hypocritical than anyone else I know who criticizes anything I say or do. I don't know any perfect people but I do know many who seem to want others to believe they might be.
We all have our faults, and my friend is right when he says that eventually our greatest fault is becoming old, because the time does come when we are just in someone else's way. Not many people his age or even mine is likely to blurt out..."I remember pussy" when asked what they miss the most about youth, but that is exactly what he said. Then he reminded me that those beautiful and interesting women that we always found desirable got old like us, and like us many of them became just wrinkled faces with bodies that have fallen victim to gravity and poor diets and with skin that enjoyed too much sun over too many summers.
I miss that kind of honesty from men like him; from that era when older guys than me didn't worry as much about what they said because they didn't feel as if they had to; ask a simple question, get a real answer with no polish or fancy frills. That's who those people were and how many from my generation used to be before so many of us felt we needed to change. My friend is part of that generation that is nearly gone now and I am shocked at how many younger people don't even care and how many more who are probably glad that society is turning the pages for what they regard as a better world without them. I suspect that many of them are feeling the same about my generation; that they will be better off without any of us who can remember the middle of the 20th Century as a better time than now. To them I would say be patient, time flies faster than you think and before you know we will all be gone and there won't be any traces of the world that existed before you got here.
Indeed, every time an old historic building is torn down I am as sad as some are glad to see it obliterated and replaced with one more aesthetically pleasing to them; perhaps a new one made of glass and shiny steel instead of bricks and elaborate cornices; one with straighter and smoother lines that catch and reflect sunlight or the rays of strategically placed lighting. The appearance of brick and mortar is probably as drab to them as I am to them.
As I approach my 63rd summer I feel I am nipping at the heals of being over the hill, others would argue that I have already crossed over it; especially those who have taken our places in jobs, and in places like stadiums and in lines at the supermarket. The truth is, my generation is disappearing too; I read or hear of the passing of people my age and younger more and more everyday and each time I wonder how much longer I will be here to share stories, or talk about the changes we have seen and why some of us are really not that impressed with most of them when compared to what we saw and experienced in life.
That time when my parents were still here and when they mattered to a lot of people, and when their parents were still around and still had much to offer. Back when most of my own life still lay ahead and when remnants of the era before mine were still plentiful. Life was simpler and much easier then, so who wouldn't miss that?
When I write it is from personal perspective and experience and I don't expect any of it to be of much interest to anyone who doesn't think a little like I do. But I really don't care because even if only a few actually read it and understand any of it I still feel pretty good about sharing my feelings if only because I still have the desire and the opportunity to.
My old friend in Michigan might just outlive me and I hope he does, but I know he hopes he won't, and that comes from something else he told me more than 20 years ago; "I hope I am not around for very long when the rest of the world gives up on me." He worried that life would suck if the time came when his hands were too shaky to light a smoke or pour his own drink. His words were funnier to me then but his message was sad when I got old enough to understand them. A guy like that isn't for everyone but I still like him and I like what he reminds me of; a place and a time filled with people who only wanted to live out their lives being graciously accepted for who they always were and leaving behind something good for the generations to follow. My grandparents probably died believing that but my friend and I both feel that they might have been the last ones who could.
