All politics is local
I was shanghaied at the last minute into going to the BRIDGE annual fundraising banquet (and oh my stars and garters do they need a better web presence!). I did have betters things I could have been doing with four and a half hours of my time than sitting around eating bad food, but I actually kind of enjoyed myself. I got to have dinner with two of the candidates for our county executive (VIP table yay!), and meet a third one, and I got to find out a lot more about the major public issues our church has been heavily involved in, and the speaker was very good and very inspiring.
And I could see myself getting heavily involved in local politics *terrifyingly* easily. At the age of about twelve, my girl scout troop went to the special visit day at the Maryland Legislature, and sitting in on a committee meeting, I realised that this was the perfect job for me, because it was *exactly* like school: sit around in small stuffy rooms pretending to listen to people nobody else is listening to either, while actually doodling on the notepad that you have hidden under the table, and outcomes that actually have nothing at all to do with facts, or what was being said in the little rooms, and everything to do with whether other people like you or not, and how you managed to manipulate the numbers. Then we went and had a mock-senate vote in the big senate chamber, and the Gazette photographer singled *me*, out of four hundred girl scouts, to photograph speaking to the Senate.
Obviously, it was my natural photogenic quality and my brilliant political charisma.
And I actually care about local politics, unlike national politics; I've given up on national politics more-or-less, but there are ways to make a difference here, in the short term and small area, that could build up to big ones, or at least make things better here and now regardless of what's going on at the other end of 295. And I even know what some of them are (Increase public transit and bike/walking routes. Low-income and mixed income housing with transit access, and keep increasing mixed-use zoning. Put people in charge of the public schools who aren't complete idiots and also on the take. Foster a sense of community in all the scattered unincorporated postal districts that pass for towns by creating and emphasizing community identity and pride. And so on and so forth), and have a vague idea of how I could start getting in with the right people and making a reputation for myself, and even turning the connections I already have in the schools and churches into the right kinds of connections. And I *care*; I love this county, as deeply messed-up as it is, and I'd love to see it start to shine the way it still could, and I'd love even more to be a part of making it that way. Especially if I could get into traditional Maryland politics, the way that's all about behind-the-scenes manouevering and very little about grandstanding for the public: too bad that the corrupt old ways are giving way to the corrupt new ones.
Too bad I'm not the sort of person who is energized rather than wiped out by intensive socializing; I can fake extroverted only so long as I can go be alone and recharge for about three hours afterward.
Besides, I'd probably have to start wearing a bra.
And I could see myself getting heavily involved in local politics *terrifyingly* easily. At the age of about twelve, my girl scout troop went to the special visit day at the Maryland Legislature, and sitting in on a committee meeting, I realised that this was the perfect job for me, because it was *exactly* like school: sit around in small stuffy rooms pretending to listen to people nobody else is listening to either, while actually doodling on the notepad that you have hidden under the table, and outcomes that actually have nothing at all to do with facts, or what was being said in the little rooms, and everything to do with whether other people like you or not, and how you managed to manipulate the numbers. Then we went and had a mock-senate vote in the big senate chamber, and the Gazette photographer singled *me*, out of four hundred girl scouts, to photograph speaking to the Senate.
Obviously, it was my natural photogenic quality and my brilliant political charisma.
And I actually care about local politics, unlike national politics; I've given up on national politics more-or-less, but there are ways to make a difference here, in the short term and small area, that could build up to big ones, or at least make things better here and now regardless of what's going on at the other end of 295. And I even know what some of them are (Increase public transit and bike/walking routes. Low-income and mixed income housing with transit access, and keep increasing mixed-use zoning. Put people in charge of the public schools who aren't complete idiots and also on the take. Foster a sense of community in all the scattered unincorporated postal districts that pass for towns by creating and emphasizing community identity and pride. And so on and so forth), and have a vague idea of how I could start getting in with the right people and making a reputation for myself, and even turning the connections I already have in the schools and churches into the right kinds of connections. And I *care*; I love this county, as deeply messed-up as it is, and I'd love to see it start to shine the way it still could, and I'd love even more to be a part of making it that way. Especially if I could get into traditional Maryland politics, the way that's all about behind-the-scenes manouevering and very little about grandstanding for the public: too bad that the corrupt old ways are giving way to the corrupt new ones.
Too bad I'm not the sort of person who is energized rather than wiped out by intensive socializing; I can fake extroverted only so long as I can go be alone and recharge for about three hours afterward.
Besides, I'd probably have to start wearing a bra.