I have to admit that life's been pretty good to/for me. My major worries these days are stepping on one of those infernal slugs on the path between my back door and my office door; or Husband No. 1 becoming a full-blown Libertarian as he's always threatening to do. The slugs I worry about constantly; my husband's political evolution? Not so much. He cannot stay sufficiently interested in it all to follow politics -- local or presidential -- otherwise he'd care enough to try to convince me to consider the likes of Ron Paul. (And god knows Libertarians -- the committed and the fellow travelers both -- do like to argue. I think it's a defining trait in them. Perhaps it comes from working alone by themselves too often. And still having doubts about being The Smartest Guy In the Room. I really don't know; I just find them all a bit off-kilter.)
It's no secret that I have no truck for Paul (or for Paulistas, not to be confused with Paulists, another group of troublesome fanatics). He's a cold fish of a certain sort. By the way, is it just me or do you, too, find obstretician/gynecologists some of the grimmest physicians working? I'd had my share of doctors and while I don't chose doctors because I need to love them, while conceding that at this age it's a good idea to stick with your internist because you'll be seeing a lot more of him or her as time goes by, it's been my totally unscientific theory that the specialty of delivering babies and looking at ladyparts with a flashlight seems to attract it's fair share of people with an empathy deficit. Don't know what it is but the closest I came to brawling with a doctor was the ob/gyn who "delivered" me 31+ years ago. Yeah yeah, I didn't come to see her until I was 7 months gone. Yeah yeah, I was placenta previa by then, which if the delivery had gone badly would have meant a messy malpractice suit on behalf of my heir and survivors. Yeah yeah I didn't think she walked on water. She and I just did not like one another. As far as I was concerned I needed a "mechanic" to get this baby out of me in a couple of month's time so I could get on with my business. Needless to say she got her revenge: showed up for about a minute in a 9 hour and oh so painful delivery. (Were it not for the delivery nurses, it would have been worse.) BabyMama Doctor left me totally unprepared for the ravages of childbirth and beyond -- the hemorrhoids, the psychotic breaks with reality due to exhaustion and all the usual greatest post-partum hits. But, I digress.
It's politics I'm thinking of, or mischief, when I tell my libertarianistically inclined spouse to run for mayor. He isn't the slightest bit interested in governing. (He wasn't even living in this country when Reagan and his ilk invented the "gov'mint is the Enemy of the People" mantra, but it speaks to his contrarian soul. Yes it does.) And I am not in the slightest bit interested in him becoming mayor, although there's a part of me that would love to don a Chanel suit, a string of pearls and a wig of blonde hair with highlights (or some variation of the above) and campaign on his behalf. But, a spell needs to be broken here in New Haven. And perhaps a jester with nothing to lose can help do that. (Jeffrey Kereke's was a serious and honorable campaign. Far different than what I'm proposing.)
The Age of DeStefano has lasted too long. Both operational efficiency and dysfunction have consumed innovation and vision. How many people who work for the city work for the city, as opposed to work to keep themselves clothed and fed and eligible for a pension? What mechanisms exist to honestly and critically evaluate its major initiatives in health, in economic development, in school reform, in housing or crime prevention with enough accountability that if there is not reasonable progress heads roll?
I'm not unmindful of the city's challenges, and how some of them are due to factors beyond one municipality's control. Nor am I unsympathetic to those who are responsible for day-to-day governance. It isn't easy, and it's all too thankless. Nevertheless, I've had the uneasy feeling for a while now that this is a feudal city with more supplicants than citizens. The sooner that ends the better we will all be.
It's no secret that I have no truck for Paul (or for Paulistas, not to be confused with Paulists, another group of troublesome fanatics). He's a cold fish of a certain sort. By the way, is it just me or do you, too, find obstretician/gynecologists some of the grimmest physicians working? I'd had my share of doctors and while I don't chose doctors because I need to love them, while conceding that at this age it's a good idea to stick with your internist because you'll be seeing a lot more of him or her as time goes by, it's been my totally unscientific theory that the specialty of delivering babies and looking at ladyparts with a flashlight seems to attract it's fair share of people with an empathy deficit. Don't know what it is but the closest I came to brawling with a doctor was the ob/gyn who "delivered" me 31+ years ago. Yeah yeah, I didn't come to see her until I was 7 months gone. Yeah yeah, I was placenta previa by then, which if the delivery had gone badly would have meant a messy malpractice suit on behalf of my heir and survivors. Yeah yeah I didn't think she walked on water. She and I just did not like one another. As far as I was concerned I needed a "mechanic" to get this baby out of me in a couple of month's time so I could get on with my business. Needless to say she got her revenge: showed up for about a minute in a 9 hour and oh so painful delivery. (Were it not for the delivery nurses, it would have been worse.) BabyMama Doctor left me totally unprepared for the ravages of childbirth and beyond -- the hemorrhoids, the psychotic breaks with reality due to exhaustion and all the usual greatest post-partum hits. But, I digress.
It's politics I'm thinking of, or mischief, when I tell my libertarianistically inclined spouse to run for mayor. He isn't the slightest bit interested in governing. (He wasn't even living in this country when Reagan and his ilk invented the "gov'mint is the Enemy of the People" mantra, but it speaks to his contrarian soul. Yes it does.) And I am not in the slightest bit interested in him becoming mayor, although there's a part of me that would love to don a Chanel suit, a string of pearls and a wig of blonde hair with highlights (or some variation of the above) and campaign on his behalf. But, a spell needs to be broken here in New Haven. And perhaps a jester with nothing to lose can help do that. (Jeffrey Kereke's was a serious and honorable campaign. Far different than what I'm proposing.)
The Age of DeStefano has lasted too long. Both operational efficiency and dysfunction have consumed innovation and vision. How many people who work for the city work for the city, as opposed to work to keep themselves clothed and fed and eligible for a pension? What mechanisms exist to honestly and critically evaluate its major initiatives in health, in economic development, in school reform, in housing or crime prevention with enough accountability that if there is not reasonable progress heads roll?
I'm not unmindful of the city's challenges, and how some of them are due to factors beyond one municipality's control. Nor am I unsympathetic to those who are responsible for day-to-day governance. It isn't easy, and it's all too thankless. Nevertheless, I've had the uneasy feeling for a while now that this is a feudal city with more supplicants than citizens. The sooner that ends the better we will all be.
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