Stay Tuned

Turn on the TV any night of the week and you’re inundated by half hour comedies, full hour dramas and two hour movies, all designed to package reality into a time release capsule. The medicine you’re being force fed over and over again is the idea that not only can all the trials and tribulations you encounter be resolved in a matter of no more than a couple of hours, but you can have anything you want, any time you want with no regard for what others may want or need.

Sound familiar?

It certainly seems like many of our problems with government stem from the fact that our representatives have jumped right out of the TV set, talking to us in one liners packaged for cable news, thinking of nothing but their own immediate self-satisfaction. We’ve gone from Thomas Paine telling us that “These are the times that try men’s souls…” to Bill Clinton discussing his choice of underwear. Where once George Washington warned us that “Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. Government is force,” we’re now being promised by Hillary Clinton (in between shrill screams sharp enough to shatter glass) that government will solve all our ills, from health care to the environment.

Abraham Lincoln assured us that “you can’t fool all of the people all of the time,” but what we’re finding is that in this age of democracy by Nielsen Ratings those who thrive on governance by fraud only need to fool those few who will tip the balance. They count on our short memories to obscure the promises of the past which they have failed to uphold. Like your typical sit-com where what happened last week is forgotten by the time the next new episode comes around, politicians will promise whatever they think will win them the most votes but delay delivery until enough of us have lost track of the original promise.

On a local level, this is the disease we’re facing in our own Town Government, but on steroids. We have a Town Board which was elected on the idea of Open Government. Not only do they completely ignore their own promise, they think we’re stupid enough to accept their lame explanation centered on the idea of “Closed Open Government.” They take an oath of office that requires only two things of them: to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the New York State Constitution, both of which guarantee that none us will lose our right to our own property without due process of the law. The laws this Town Government has passed and wants to continue passing are a direct violation of their oath of office.

We can talk until we’re blue in the face, but they’ll never listen. You see, we’re not in the script. We’re not the cute but goofy girl next door. We’re not the nerd who becomes a jock overnight. We’re not the trendy, witty friends hanging out in a Manhattan coffee shop. We’re not even the redneck farmers whose every financial hardship is suddenly solved because the rain has finally come, accompanied by music by John Williams.

As far as they’re concerned, we’re nothing but a reason to change the channel.

Well, we’re no TV show. We won’t be giving them instant gratification. They can’t get a team of writers to delete us from the screenplay.

On the other hand, Election Day is coming. The Supervisor and her Board are about to get cancelled.