As you probably know, this season -- this 21st Century, I mean -- is a distinctly political season. Everything that happens seems to have an admixture of The Public Thing.
Now, I don't want to say this is all bad, especially not on Northwest Ordinance Day. As you surely recall, the NW Ordinance laid out the policies of the United States concerning the vast Territories North and West of the Ohio River. Under the terms of the Ordinance, the Government took a strong hand in distributing the Public Lands, providing for Public Education, protecting the customs and liberties of existing residents, and carving out new States for admission into the Confederation, or Union. (The ordinance predates the Constitution.) That is to say, an admixture of Government in daily life has been the Rule since 1787.
On the other hand, modern communication technologies have elevated this principle to something of a mania. While I hardly watch television (except for old shows in DVD), the telephone still seems a necessity. For some reason, a vast array of people find that marrying the telephone to the computer is something of a nirvana; presumably that's because it allows them to intrude into everyone else's daily life without having to hear the inevitable blast of invective which results. I am not sure which is worse, the phone calls that assume I'm old, ill, and in debt, or the calls assuming that I will vote for whoever annoys me the most before the next election. "Hi, this is a recording about your current IRS tax debt." "Hi. Please stay on the line for a recorded message from a political candidate who doesn't care enough about you to even have his recorded message ready when you answer."
Yesterday the doorbell rang, the dog barked, and the homeowner shooed away a couple with a clipboard advocating for the election of (I think) Jamie Wall. The woman (who was holding the clipboard) said, "Are you Peter?" Well, if that's how you start a conversation you might as well be working for the TSA! I said, "Who are you?" (I'm sure that she assumed that implied a "yes" answer but the truth is that I never said who I was.) Anyway, she gave some name and then admitted they were out supporting the candidate. "I'm not talking to any political people today," I told them. They looked shocked. "You aren't?" they said.
Funny thing, I had to look on the internet today to find out whether Jamie Wall is a Republican or a Democrat. (The answer is Democrat.) I guess I really didn't have to look it up, but my point was that I didn't already know which party he was with, even though I did know that he had tried to run before and lost. According to a leftover Lawrence University posting from that earlier time, it appears that Jamie grew up in Askeaton and then he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Had the politicouple at my door started out by saying, "Hi, we're Mary and Joe and we're supporting electing a Rhodes scholar to Congress," might I have been more intrigued?