politricks and other distractions

Why Politics, Murder and Other Distractions?

Everybody's got their issues. I've got mine. I grew up in a liberal, Irish Catholic family in Washington, D.C. during the 1960s and 70s. I used to think the "assn" at the end of cab company names meant "assassination." It was a word I saw a lot as a kid.

As I grew up, I took the artistic route. Eventually, I gave up art and moved to Hollywood where I worked in television. It was then that I began to understand thinking like your audience. In sitcoms, it's very important to know where the audience is at any moment, so you can surprise them and make them laugh.

Then I moved home. I finally figured a way into being paid as a writer: writing for political campaigns. I learned that you take the poll numbers, you work with the team to develop the messaging and strategy from the poll, then you bombard the public with as much info as you can to support your candidate - given the amount of money said candidate has.

And so, political candidates are born and told what their stance on issues should be. If you want to win, you pander to where people already are, then you try to move them from that position closer to yours. It's called "persuasion." Now I see that kind of thing everywhere and feel like I speak a language everyone else in America speaks - but I KNOW I'm speaking it. They're just absorbing. Hence, my obsessive need to pay attention to what goes on in our elected officials' work lives.

Murder: well, I'm from DC after all. Murder is one of our key exports - though that's not to discount all the locals we slaughter every year. Our children do a fine job of killing each other for North Face jackets and all manner of stupid reasons. I tutored a kid once whose grandmother (probably my age) had been raped and murdered in her home and the guy was never caught. Then the girl was at the Zoo on Black Family Day (the day after Easter) when a guy opened fire on Connecticut Ave. She was standing about 10 feet from him and was saved by jumping on the bus. She was 12 when she told me these stories. She had no emotions about them, they were just facts that had happened in her life. I found that scary.

Then I had a murder in my own personal life, of someone I cared a lot about. It wasn't til then that I understood the ripples that any murder sends through a group of people, a family, a community. Once I saw that, I never read the paper the same again. It all seems to be about murder and our lack of sympathy for other humans. Scary - and sad. I'm running a campaign for DC mayor-in-exile (see future posts) based on the "Stop Murder" ticket. Stay tuned for more details.

And finally, other distractions. Well, too many years in Hollywood and too many years around the tube with my family have made me waaaay too tuned into pop culture. Thank god I never had a weight problem, or I'd be blaming it on eating disorders caused by too much ingestion of the VH1 stories of anorexic actresses. I'm fascinated by our fascination with fame. I wanted it myself as a kid, then saw up close and personal what a price people paid for fame. Luckily, my acting teachers always encouraged me to write.

So that's the explanation of the title of this blog. Today's political thought comes from having seen Jimmy Carter on TV this morning. I see what he's done since leaving the White House and think how much better his style of forging democracy has worked than Bush's. The Carter Center's monitoring of elections has led to two peaceful elections in Indonesia and a clean bill of health for the Palestinian elections. They work in 60 countries that are conventionally ignored by the American government and media, but I would bet you lots of money that their work reaps much longer and deeper benefits than the current Administration's policies.

Pre-emptive war? Secret prisons? Tortured condoned by the hiring of "consultants" and the use of foreign countries? Guantanamo Bay? Abu Ghraib? Does anybody think this kind of tactic works in the long-haul - except those in the situation room?

How far does the delusion have to spread in our leadership before the rampant failure of these policies starts to wake Americans up? Or are we so in love with our fun house image in the mirror that we'll continue to ignore the pain we're causing and just figure everything will eventually work out for the better?

Two blogs and already I'm repeating myself. I guess it's time to go read that People Magazine about Brad, Jen and Angelina. SOOOO much more interesting.

posted by dcnative @ 7:55 PM