Partisan Poison and American Political Aristocracy

Number 2 in a series of comments about something I have read recently.

I found an article on the web entitled “Anyone but a Bush or a Clinton”. It was written by James Burkee who is an assistant professor of history at Concordia University Wisconsin and co-founder of the bipartisan political action committee Americans for Responsibility in Washington. It was written January 22, 2007 and can be read on the Los Angeles Times website here.

The gist of the article is that the next president should not have the last name of Clinton or Bush. These names might become a sort of "unnatural" aristocracy who inherited great fortunes and political office – something that Thomas Jefferson warned against. There is also a great partisan divide right now in politics that I think is threatening this nation – something that George Washington warned against.

Just imagine that Hillary Clinton serves 2 terms as president. And then Jeb Bush gets elected for two terms after that. We would have had a Bush or a Clinton as president from 1989 until 2024! That’s 36 years that the United States will have been governed by either a Bush or a Clinton. That's an awful long time governed not just by the same two families but probably by much of the same supporting staff.

The thing about the Clintons and the Bushes is that they are loved by many and hated by just as many. I think it would be foolish to elect someone in 2008 that will be hated by as many people as hate George Bush right now. Leave aside the reasons people hate George Bush and Hillary Clinton. Why elect someone to mirror what is going on now with George Bush?

I think it is time for someone that one side will like and the other side will be able to respect – someone who can heal the great divide that exists right now. But to do this, the dividers on both sides of the aisle must realize that being bipartisan does not mean when the other side does it our way. And, probably most important of all, can put the nation before party or power.

Is there a candidate who can win 55% or more of the votes? The last candidate to do so was Ronald Reagan who got 59%. Since then, no one has received more than 50.1%.

We need someone new. I do now know who this will be and I do not have an opinion yet other than to say that it should not be a Bush, a Clinton, or anyone else central to the last few administrations.

Watching the Sky Move

This is the first in a series of comments about something I have read recently.

I read an article in the February 2007 Astronomy magazine written by Glenn Chaple called Watching the Sky Move. Glenn writes that he has an unusual interest in watching very slow things enfold such as watching the movement of the minute hand on a clock. Or more pertinent to Astronomy, he spent time trying to actually observe the movements of stars across the sky. He did this on one occasion by sitting very still and watching a bright star, Sirius, move past branches in a tree that were between he and the star. It must have been a very still night as well or the branches would have moved as well causing his attempt to be less interesting.

I found this article interesting for several reasons. Although not recently, I actually have tried to observe the movement of the minute hand on a clock. It is easier with a large clock, by the way. Why? I don’t know – just something I had to do once upon a time long ago. That means not recently – not in the last 25 years. But I did do it and did discover that those minute hands do move while they are being watched.

I have never tried to observe star movement without looking through a telescope. In a telescope, such movement is very apparent because whatever you are looking at does not stay in view very long if you don’t have a motorized telescope to keep things in view.

What causes the apparent movement of the stars? Mostly it is the rotation of the Earth which causes the surface to zoom along at about 1000 miles per hour. Yet star movement is nearly imperceptible.

Lilac Parade

My hometown of Lombard, Illinois is famous for one particular thing. Lilacs. There is a park in town called Lilacia Park that has a huge collection of lilacs of all sorts of varieties.

There is also a parade every year called the Lombard Lilac Parade. I remember going to this parade every year in May at the peak of the blooming of the lilacs in town. This parade has been held every year since 1930. I haven't seen this parade for more than 25 years but I remember seeing the marching bands and the floats crafted by local businesses and schools. I recal the Shriners driving their motorcycles or flying carpet gocarts. The clowns, the horses, the clubs. What I always liked best was the fire engines. They always had 20 or more fire engines at the beginning of the parade from Lombard and the neighboring towns. They had their sirens blaring and they were really really loud. It made some little kids cry!