I'm starting the week slowly. I was supposed to teach the last class of three today, starting with the morning session. My students didn't show, but two of the ladies from the evening session did, with fires to put out. I was happy to be able to help them solve their problems.
That's what I've generally done for my professional existence: solve other people's problems. I used to joke that all I did was fix other people's mistakes; this might have been a slight exaggeration in answering the question, "So what do you do?" (Not by much, though.) Now, it's more and more of what I do.
Oddly enough, I'm happy doing it. Before, it was an annoyance. An imposition. Getting files from people who claimed they knew what they were doing – claimed they knew more than me, in some cases – and finding them useless for the purpose they were intended for was the thumbtack on my chair most days. Mainly because God forbid you call them and tell them to fix it/supply the missing parts/answer a stupid freaking question.
Now, I get people who are more than capable of doing the work themselves, yet they realize when they're beat. When they don't have the answer. When they're confused about something, and when they need help, lest they frog the whole mess back and throw it in a corner. It's sometimes stretching it to think I've got the answer they need, but I give it my best shot. I fix; I show them how to fix; I hopefully give them the confidence to fix.
I think it's their honesty that makes the difference.
Before, it was, "No, my file's fine. It's your people who don't know what they're doing." (Yeah, right.) Now, it's, "I did something and it's not right." These people admit to making a mistake. And most of them want to know how to fix it and prevent it from happening again. (Note that I said "most.") They aren't huffy when I point out the dropped stitch or the botched pattern repeat. They patiently try again. (Or at least humor me in the store and go home to stuff it in a drawer.)
A little honesty goes a long way. In this case, it makes me feel better. And more willing to help people who need it – and want to be helped.
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I was listening to the radio on my way home from the class this morning, with a belly full of sushi (eel roll) and a fresh diet Coke in the cupholder. Rush mentioned something that caught my ear, and many thanks to him for putting the link to the original back up so I could quote from it.
I pondered it in my head on the rest of the drive. I read about what's happening in certain election races around the country (*coughNY23cough*) and I have to shake my head. How is the message still being so misunderstood by so many?
what message?
The same message that the TEA partiers have been blasting. The same message that hundreds thousands brought to town hall meetings this summer. The message that's hitting regional candidates in districts across the country.
We're sick of the status quo as it's evolved, and we want it changed.
i thought you didn't like change.
I don't like "change" as it was perverted during the presidential campaign. All that hopeychangey mess, just so much bullshit for votes.
Example: Scozzafava was running as a "Republican" candidate. (Now, set aside the fact that a New York Republican is a liberal Democrat in other areas of the country.) She didn't support anything that the national party stands for. She was blatantly, unapologetically liberal. Her nearest opposition, Conservative Mr. Hoffman, more closely identified with the official party line.
People have been standing up and rejecting liberal politics as usual. They've protested in the hundreds of thousands on the Mall in DC. They've held TEA parties all over the country. They've written letters, visited offices, called into talk shows. They've stormed town hall meetings, confronted their elected representives, and been unafraid of any repercussions.
You'd think that people would stand up and take notice. Maybe even adapt their stance in this new light. But no. Ms. Scozzafava endorsed the Democrat candidate when she withdrew from the race. Now some say that this is just as it should be; after all, her values more closely identify with the liberal than the conservative. Fair enough.
But it's still arrogance as usual. It's still dismissing what the people clearly want as inconsequential and remaining with the party line irregardless. And that's what people want to change.
Need another example? PelosiCare. The new House health care bill. I've been slogging through it, and not only is it the same thing that was shoved at us before the summer break – and the contentious town hall meetings – but it's more of it. (I'm taking copious notes and will cite chapter and verse at a later date.)
If it wasn't true arrogance as usual, then our representatives would have said, "Whoa. Got to start over. It's obvious that this doesn't have any support." But they aren't interested in what the people think. They believe they're omnipotent. They believe they're appointed for life, not elected every couple of years, because people have been too complacent and not paying enough attention to what they've been doing.
They think you're stupid. They think you can be swept under the rug. That's why the most haughty, pompous, and overbearing among them weren't afraid to yell back at people – to belittle them in front of the crowd, or to hire thugs to pull out the detractors from the crowd and either have them forcibly expelled or shut out in the first place.
But thanks to talk shows, bloggers (heh), alternative media and social networking sites in general, the lack of a wardrobe on the buttocks of the big-headed is becoming easier to spot. It's why Hoffman in up in the polls in NY23. It's why Christie still has a slight edge over Corzine in New Jersey. (I'd love to see that come off…) It's why McDonnell is up so high here in Virginia. (Well, that, and the fact that Deeds is an all-too-visible do-nothing, empty-headed prop for the DNC.)
Look, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Go out tomorrow and vote your conscience. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. (Well, I will, but you're going to do what you want to anyway.) But just remember what's been going down since this time last year. Ask yourself if you want to perpetuate the cycle of belittlement, arrogance, and general ineptitude, or if you really, honestly want to effect change in our world. The country is at a breaking point. Most of the elections at stake tomorrow are local, but that's where it all starts and generally affects the most people. It's also where the message of real change can start and be sent from.
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Oh, and that bit I wanted to quote? Rush, as written in the Wall Street Journal in 2005:
"I love being a conservative. We conservatives are proud of our philosophy. Unlike our liberal friends, who are constantly looking for new words to conceal their true beliefs and are in a perpetual state of reinvention, we conservatives are unapologetic about our ideals. We are confident in our principles and energetic about openly advancing them. We believe in individual liberty, limited government, capitalism, the rule of law, faith, a color-blind society and national security. We support school choice, enterprise zones, tax cuts, welfare reform, faith-based initiatives, political speech, homeowner rights and the war on terrorism. And at our core we embrace and celebrate the most magnificent governing document ever ratified by any nation – the U.S. Constitution. Along with the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes our God-given natural right to be free, it is the foundation on which our government is built and has enabled us to flourish as a people."
Party politics is just that. Republican or Democrat – it's a party affiliation. Totally different from one's ideology. I am not a Republican. I don't believe in those sorts of affiliations. They are too narrow, and too often require one to compromise one's principles for the sake of getting along. I
am a Conservative. It is what I
believe, not who I sit with.
That's honesty.
