Dear Brian Liss, Republican

June 21, 2010


Dear Brian C. Liss, Republican candidate who “plans to exhaust all legal means to unseat Susy Blake,” a present state representative who I voted for and continue to support.

I received your letter in the mail today. Congratulations on your apparent candidacy for state representative of District 13!

Though I have never heard of you in my life, your letter took me by surprise.

See, you refer to yourself as a Freedom Fighter. It’s right there in your signature! “Brian Liss, Your freedom fighter!” With exclamation points and everything!

Here’s the thing. Despite your letter’s insistence, governmental support for public services is not “socialism.” And the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act isn’t “unprecedented intergenerational theft.” (Also, you should probably hyphenate that one. “Inter-generational.”)

Those things don’t mean the same thing. They never have. Buy a dictionary.

I’m struggling to determine which freedoms you’re fighting for, and why I’m in need of a freedom fighter in the first place. I get it, though. You’re using baited buzz words in order to scare those who aren’t paying attention into backing the standard Conservative Agenda. Ha! Conservative Agenda. Get it? I’M USING YOUR TERM AGAINST YOU! LOL!

Let’s get one thing straight. I supported Susy Blake last election. And I will again, especially if you are running against her, Mr. Brian Liss, Republican. See, I appreciate a candidate that doesn’t run screaming to the party line in order to make a case for election. I respect a candidate that positions the argument as “here’s why you should vote for me,” not “here’s why my opponent sucks and why you shouldn’t vote for her.” Most of all, I’ll support a candidate that backs away from hyperbole and weasel words, instead offering factual evidence, explanation and cautious realism.

Oh, and there’s the issue of class. This letter has no class, Brian Liss, Republican. It’s brash and intrusive. It doesn’t belong in my mailbox. It doesn’t belong in any mailbox.

You missed an opportunity, I think. When you’re connecting to those of us who aren’t officially affiliated with a party, you are representing your entire party’s platform. So next time, remind me why I should vote for you. Because all you’ve done with THIS mailing is remind me why I never will.

Tags: Politics, Sioux Falls |

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Hey Senator

June 18, 2010


WellstoneIt’s been seven and a half years.

I didn’t know Paul well, but I knew what he stood for, and what he meant to Minnesota, and what he meant to me, a Minnesota transplant who cared deeply about education rights and the future of the country.

And I knew how it felt to hear he went down. That he was gone. Forever.

It’s no wonder I still feel chills when I hear Mason Jennings’ “The Ballad of Paul and Sheila.” And when I think of what could have been – what role Wellstone would play in today’s government, where it’s hard to trust either side, where we’ve all become so disenchanted with the story and the acting that we’ve forgotten what the roles stood for in the first place.

To make the nation better. To keep things honest. For us. And for our kids.

I guess what I’m trying to say is this: I still miss Paul Wellstone.

October morning; little plane on the forest floor.
Up on the TV between a rerun and another war.
Here in a hotel, trying to make some sense of this.
Two thousand miles from my family in Minneapolis.

Hey Senator, I wanna say,
all the things you fought for did not die here today
Hey Senator, I’m gonna do,
all the things I can to live my life more like you lived.

-Mason Jennings, “The Ballad of Paul and Sheila”

Tags: Music, Politics |

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Keeping down with the Joneses

July 1, 2009


Before we purchased our house, we snuck a peak at the average utility bills for the family that owned it before us.

They were astronomical. And we knew we could do better.

The reasoning was twofold. First, we knew we couldn’t afford an electric bill that ran nearly three times that from our old house. Second was a matter of pride – that we are able to watch what we use. That, despite our inklings otherwise, we’re armchair conversationalists.

We were lucky enough to see the problem immediately – electric baseboard heating in a very cold basement, connected with its own thermostat, was used more often than needed with two pre-teen boys playing video games non-stop during the winter.

And, we were lucky enough to have something to compare to.

If you knew what your neighbors were using, would you work otherwise? If you could see how you shaped up on average – for example, if you were using less than the neighborhood average, or if you were using more and saw the cost differential – would you make arrangements to change your habits?

According to an article in The Atlantic, energy companies are betting that yes, you would.

It’s being tracked by a company named Positive Energy, and it a new wave of controlling costs through guilt or competition. According to the article:

”In Positive Energy’s reports, a once-intangible bit of social information—how much energy you use relative to your neighbors—is made tangible. Now you can find out not just what people in the same city are doing, but what people in your neighborhood, living in the same-size houses, are doing … but also with customized tips on how to do better.”

Will it work? So far, it has.

”…in Sacramento, where Positive Energy began its pilot program with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in 2008, people who received personalized “compared with your neighbors” data on their statements reduced their energy use by more than 2 percent over the course of a year. In energyspeak, a 2 percent reduction is huge; with the pilot sample of 35,000 homes, it’s the equivalent of taking 700 homes off the grid. And the cost to the utility is minor: for every dollar a utility spends on a solar power plant, it produces 3 to 4 kilowatt-hours; for every dollar a utility spends on the energy reports, it saves 10 times that.”

So, I say this to my local electric and gas companies: Go ahead. Guilt me into cutting back. Make me prove my ability to conserve.

It sounds like the type of challenge that we all could handle.

Tags: Home, Politics |

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Hope.

November 5, 2008


Hope.

I’ve written and deleted and re-written, trying to find the right angle – something that isn’t cliche, something that hasn’t been written already in the past several hours at a much higher level, with more inspiration and feeling.

I’ve tried to tie this election to the leveling spirit of Paul Wellstone, to compare it to the future we might have had, to connect with the world we are creating for Sierra as she grows.

But it all comes down to one thing. One word. One emotion, one feeling, one promise.

HOPE.

I give thanks for the nation that helped elect the first black President. I give thanks for those who trusted a new generation of leaders, a new direction – an agent of change.

But most of all, I give thanks for all that has happened over the past two years – instilling in all of us the idea that, no matter who we are or where we live, hope will never be simply a four-letter word.

Because we see it now. HOPE is for real.

Tags: Politics |

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Election night special

November 4, 2008


Blue and red. Percentages. Calling a state. Graphics and experts and legends.

Take everything you love about sports coverage. The predictions, the numbers, the human interest stories. The battle of good and evil, of your team and their team, of underdogs and how the standings will shake out when it’s all said and done.

Now apply this to something with real consequence. Like the future of our country’s policies.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Election Night Coverage!

It’s all there. Talking heads, trained to interpret and console, to think logically in the wake of so many decisions. They’re there to make you feel better. They’re Al Michaels or Pat Summerall, prepared to sum up the election in a matter of sentences.

There’s the opinion men and women, the John Maddens, the Tony Kornheisers, all prepared to put a little spin on the whole proceedings. They take the simple facts and turn them into speculation, both preparing us for the possible and reminding us of the excitement – the thrill of the chase.

Stats appeal to those who love concrete details. Candidate parties appeal to those who want to be included. Talk of surprising winners appeals to the underdog-chasers, and tales of real people doing real things touch a nerve in all of us.

This is our process. Our selection. We choose these people to run our country, and in these first few hours after polls close, our optimism (or pessimism, if your candidate is losing) is at its peak. If we win, we’re almost positive that everything will be perfect. If we lose, it might as well be the end of the world.

If you know what’s good for you, you’ve already voted – or at least you’ve made plans to vote. Now, sit back and watch this crazy process unfold. Grab a beer, make predictions – hell, take bets if it makes things more exciting.

You only get to see this kind of spectacle once every four years. Grab your foam fingers and start rooting for your candidate.

Because it’s all downhill from here.

Tags: Politics, Television |

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Not alone in looking for change

November 1, 2008


It turns out that the pilfering of Obama signs wasn’t isolated to our two-block radius. This sign has been up for a few weeks now, but I’ve just gotten around to getting it on the site. It’s from a block west of McKennan Park, about a half-mile from where we live.

McPalin Supporters Stole My Sign

Of course, it’s wasn’t just Sioux Falls either. Ask Peter Frampton.

It doesn’t make me any less mad – I mean, come on, what a chicken-shit thing to do, really – but at least I know we aren’t alone.

It’s amazing what a fear of defeat can make some people do. And in the case of this sign, it’s amazing what loyalty to the idea of change can produce.

Tags: Politics, Sioux Falls |

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Less is more

October 27, 2008


The CBS studio crew during football games consists of five people. Three former players, a former coach and a sports broadcast veteran.

The FOX crew is even larger. If you count the robot, it’s close to breaking double digits.

Post-debate coverage on the major 24-hour news channels turned into a rotation of several experts, pundits and other personalities. In one surreal television moment, Anderson Cooper sat in between a dozen people, squashed together behind two too-small news desks, shooting off questions like a semi-automatic firearm, fighting for space and for clarity.

Walter Cronkite would report on his own. By himself. No experts, or former employees, or anyone that would distract from the one important thing: the news. You listened to him as an expert. As a trusted voice. As a thick syrup of news, coating and lasting, irreplaceable, a true benefit to the station.

The more people you fit on a stage, the more watered down their message will become. They will receive fewer opportunities to talk, which makes them less and less important as individuals in the larger picture. And if they’re less important, then what’s stopping us from simply tuning them out?

My suggestion to television news and sports programs. Experts are good. But keep them at a minimum, please. Because when everyone starts sounding the same, it doesn’t really matter if your announcer is a former football player, or if your pundit is the premier historian in regards to presidential politics. They’re just another head on a 10-headed media monster.

And cutting one off doesn’t seem to matter.

Tags: Annoyances, Football, Politics, Television |

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