Summary paragraph: In which Menin muses on the priorities of the Federal Gov't, and advocates for more local uses of available money.
Recently, I added a stat-tracker to the blog; one that has lots of features and doo-dads. The feature that keeps me, admittedly an easy target, amused is the one where you can call up a map that tells you where your hits are coming from. Although one of my fellow Newburyport bloggers did warn me about this, I have to say I was surprised and a little flattered when the following two hits appeared on the counter:
Host: cache-mtc-aa12.proxy.aol.com, ISP: America Online Inc, Entry Page Time: 16th
October 2007 11:21:04 AM, Visit Length: 0 seconds, Browser: MSIE 7.0,
OS: Windows Vista, Resolution: 1280x1024
Location: Virginia, Reston, United States
, Returning Visits: 0, Referring URL: No referring link
I've removed the IP addresses.
Reston, Reston. Virginia. Well, I don't know anybody in Reston, Virginia. I
do know that there are several Executive Branch agencies that have headquarters in Reston.
Folks, these are your tax dollars at work here in America, 2007. We have a federal government that refuses to guarantee health care and nutrition to every child under 18, but has the money to monitor every single blog in the country.
No Child Left Behind has never been funded at more than 15% of it's promised level, but the government is willing to spend time watching for subversive activity on the blog of an admittedly ornery candidate for re-election to a local School Committee. There isn't enough money to arm and properly equip soldiers fighting in a war of choice, and the World Language
Department at Newburyport High School has started the year without Spanish textbooks.
How do you even begin to teach children about the Constitution, the Rule of Law, the greatness possible in this country, when putting the word "Iraq" or AIDS in your blog sets off an alarm in small cubicle in Reston, Virginia?
Good people of Newburyport. The inter-generational compact is breaking down; for the first time, we are leaving our children a world that is in much worse shape environmentally than the one we inherited; our schools remain in the 20th century, and we cannot seem to engage in a public dialogue that isn't polarizing and cartoonish.
This is an important election. Look for people with a reputation for listening
and not shouting, for those who would try to find common ground and not raise substantive disagreements to the level of simplistic demonizing.
Look for people who embrace a range of opinions.When the seats are taken by people who already agree on the problems, the procedures and the outcomes, they stop listening to the community; there's no incentive to seek answers; they already have them. Public process, that messy, sloppy thing that is democracy, which leads to boring meetings and painstaking efforts to forge a consensus on the future
becomes a thing apart from outcomes.
When I first ran for School Committee six years ago, for all intents and purposes, the Committee was an echo chamber, a group of people who felt little need to move beyond token efforts to bring real dialogue into their decisions. They worked exceptionally well together, and it felt to me that votes on issues were merely a formality, ratifying choices that were made at another time and place.
That isn't what the City needs right now. When you vote, try to bring together as representatives people with a range of views and perspectives, to promote a real exchange of ideas as we move forward.
Thanks. If anybody wants me, I'll be walking the outer Wards, waiting to hear from the IRS telling me my taxes are going to be audited.
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