Friday, November 11, 2005

What I don't like about politicians

A neighbor just ran for town council, but I didn't vote for her. I don't know her all that well, although I should, considering we've been neighbors for nine years. I knew her son's name long before I knew hers, because she routinely stands on her front porch and screams it when she wants him home. But that's not why I didn't vote for her. And it's not because of the party she belongs to, either.

A few weeks ago, my husband saw her outside and told her some of the neighborhood kids like to hang out in her yard when she's not home. They participate in your typical preteen boy activities-beating each other up, breaking branches off trees and chasing each other with them, etc. etc. My daughter and I refer to them as the "Sign Abusers" for their habit of hitting a certain street sign with whatever they're carrying (one, in particular, always seems to have a stick).

This neighbor's response to what my husband told her was "Well, you should vote for me, because I want to make some changes around here." Um, want changes was she thinking of, exactly? Legislation to force their parents to discipline them? An ordinance that requires people to be able to account for their kids' whereabouts at all times? A ban on trees, so they won't have sticks to hit each other with?

I admit Hubby obsesses a little too much about the hoodlums, as he calls them, and I'm not sure what the right response from her would have been. Thank you for letting me know, I guess, or Maybe I'll talk to their parents...something along those lines. What she did instead was avoid the topic and re-direct the conversation to what she wanted to talk about, namely the election. Not to mention proposing a solution that isn't really a solution. A typical politician maneuver. Probably her opponents would have done the same thing, but there's a chance they wouldn't have. She did. So that's why I didn't vote for her.

She won anyway.

Really, I do like some of my neighbors.

Posted by The Gradual Gardener :: 10:29 AM :: 0 Comments:

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