I'm a bad American citizen. I didn't see President George W. Bush fulfill his Constitutional obligation to provide a State of the Union message the other night. I didn't watch because I figured that it would be like describing a zebra. Our dear President would likely see it as a black animal with white stripes. I would just as likely see it as a white animal with black stripes. We would be looking at the same animal, yet our descriptions would be different on some fundamental level. It just goes to show you that more than beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.
Subsequent experience shows that I was probably right. I almost caught 30 seconds of the State of the Union address the morning after. I had to immediately turn it off. President Shrub was talking about American strength or some such thing. More Republican pabulum for folks who have rifles and American flags on the letterhead of their personal stationary, I guess. I didn't need to hear it. He was describing the black animal with white stripes.
Back when the 2000 Election season was upon us, I was living in my old graduate school stomping grounds. Ralph Nader was BIG down there in those days. I seemed to hear "oh, the two major party candidates don't seem different AT ALL" from everybody under the age of 25, almost everywhere. Ya gotta love 19 year old college students; they sometimes have so much passion and so little perspective. I wish I could round everyone who said that up in the same room and scream "SO WHO THINKS THE TWO CANDIDATES ARE THE SAME NOW????"
I can't believe that Al Gore would have made an ideal President during the last four years, but, I have to believe that if pressed, he would generally agree that the zebra is a white creature with black stripes. I wouldn't have driven a 90 mile round trip on a work day just to vote for him, otherwise.
Say... if I'm willing to drive 90 miles to vote, I guess I'm not such a bad American citizen after all. I think I just must not like describing zebras.
Yeah, that's it.
said drgeek
on 2004-01-22 at 3:25 p.m.
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