The circus is coming, the circus is coming....

   I try to stay away from writing about politics. It is something I don't really know too much about. But every once and a while I just feel the urge to vent, to share a comment or two to show my political ignorance or express one of my narrow minded opinions, knowing that many who read this may disagree with me. But isn't that what makes this country great? (And Donald thought that statement was his original idea.)

   As of the date of writing this week's blog, there are 283 days until election day and, to be honest, I am not sure I am going to make it without throwing the television remote or a coffee cup at the TV or ripping the radio out of the car.

   For just one day I would like to turn on the evening news and not hear about the candidates or the primaries. For just one day I would like a break from the name calling, the character bashing, and the sometimes stupid and idiotic comments. Oh wait. I wasn't talking about the candidates. I was referring to the media coverage and some of the news reporters.

   And then there are the candidates themselves, of course, people who believe they are able and qualified to lead a nation. 
   The truth is you can’t take classes in college to become President of the United States or go to workshops on “How to be the  President”. It takes more training than spending a week or two in an internship program to gain the skills necessary to be the leader of one of the greatest nations in the world  and yet there are many who feel themselves qualified to aspire to the highest elected position in the land.

   I was born in 1946. In 1948, Harry Truman was elected President. True. Many said he couldn't do the job. Some were right.  But since then there have been 16 Presidential elections and each who served faced a variety of challenges in a rapidly changing world. None had gone to college for the sole purpose of becoming President and my guess... that not too long after taking office, many discovered just how challenging the responsibilities were and how ill prepared they actually were for the job. Does LBJ sound familiar?

   I am really not sure if some of those currently running for office have a true understanding of what is required. Just because you have been a Governor or a member of the Congress does not necessarily make you qualified to be President. 
   Yes, the President does have a great deal of power, influence and control, but there is one thing we now know sure though. It will cost a great deal of money to get elected in 2016 and the billions and billions of dollars that will be spent over the next 283 day will be staggering. It almost seems that becoming President of the United States has become a rich man's (or woman's) game. And... we all know what lots of money has the potential to do! I think it's called the Golden Rule, you know, he who has the gold......

   This coming Monday seems to be a pretty important day. Personally, I really don't understand why the opinions of the people in Iowa are more important than here in Maine. Iowa is probably a very nice place to visit, although I would not want to live there. Is there an ocean close by? Is the seafood in the restaurants fresh? 
   Why are they first in this entire process? And because different States use different methods to select candidates to attend the nominating conventions, does the system accurately reflect the wishes of those who will eventually vote, or in many cases who decide not to vote for whatever reason.
   The first election that had meaning for me while I was still in school was 1960. The social studies teacher had made an assignment, to write an essay. The title was..."What if a Catholic President?" Remember, Kennedy was a Catholic and a Catholic had never been elected President before. Would his decisions and leadership be influenced by the Pope in Rome. OMG!
   Imagine. A Catholic President!
   And then there was the election of 2008. A President of the United States, a person of color. This still is not well accepted by many in different regions of the country and one of the reasons why some are so angry with government. 
   Who knows what may be next? Could it be a woman, or someone of Jewish faith?
   And what is the 'natural born citizen' controversy. I know what it says in the Constitution. I have read it. But...I can be the son born to American citizens, but because my parents are vacationing in Aruba or Canada or, God forbid, Pennsylvania, at the time of my birth.....Nope not going to go there. 
    Can someone please tell me just how the Republican Party of today is anything like that of the Lincoln Presidency in 1860's. It all goes back to those damn immigrants of the 1860's coming to America or the freeing of the slaves in the South. 
   And yes it's nice to be reminded that socialism in America is alive and well again.What a crime it would be to have an affordable healthcare system for everyone, not just the rich.
    With all due respect,  U.S. Presidential elections are important. It is part of what makes the democratic process work and it is not my intent to mock or criticize the system. If that were my intent, I would take off my shirt, hop on the back of a horse and join Vladimir Putin on a photo shoot.  But when the election is treated like a circus coming to town, when the only way to get elected is by bashing your opponents and spending billions of dollars while thousands of children in the U.S. go hungry each day or women are viewed as second class citizens when it comes to salary and income, it's no wonder the average voter feels left out of the process. 
   The good news, there are only 283 days until election day 2016. The bad news, the campaign for the election of 2020 begins November 9, 2016.

Is it 2016 or 1620...

   We are just several days into the new year, 2016 that is, but there is something haunting about the year for me. As it is sometimes said, “curiosity killed the cat", and I needed to get a good night's sleep and put my curiosity to rest. Not wanting to become a dead cat,  I decided to take a quick look back to the year 1620. Google searches make that so easy these days. Obviously 1620 was well before my time so I was going to have to rely on the writers and historians of the time for the details and events and as I read through the list of dates and events, I was somewhat surprised by what I found and maybe had forgotten.

   There is an old expression... “what goes around comes around...” and while 1620 is nearly 400 years ago now, some of the issues and events of the day were, in some form or another, not that much different than those of 2016. After all, this is an election year. It almost feels as though the fears and concerns of life in 1620 gets replayed at each of the current Presidential debate, regardless of political party affiliation.

   For example, there were peace treaties being negotiated with the Roman Empire, an empire that once ruled the world.  A new religious migration was taking place in the French North America (Canada) and women were being arrested and tried in court for witchcraft.

   As countries struggled in wars against each other to grow, expand their territory and capture a piece of the world action, it forced family members, bothers and brothers, fathers and sons to go into battle against each other.

   In an effort to escape the turmoil and bloodshed taking place worldwide, a small group of immigrants set sail on September 15^th 1620 from Plymouth, England in search for a new land, a new place to call home, and after spending nearly 2 months at sea, the Mayflower, with 102 pilgrims aboard ship spotted the tip of what we now call Cape Cod. These were immigrants to the new world. And for the next 400 years people from all over the world would come to America in search of  the "American dream."

   In early December, the passengers on board eventually landed at a place they later named Plymouth Rock. But before the day was over, Myles Standish and 18 of the early settlers  were attacked by 30 Native Americans, the attack later becoming known as the First Encounter. And as immigrants from Europe and other parts of the world continued to arrive in the new land searching for a better and friendly place to settle, those attacks and encounters would continue. Sound familiar?

   Irony is often defined as a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects. The irony for me are the dates of 1620 and 2016. In reality, they probably have little in common, except for the numbers 16 and 20. Put in a perspective of time, they are nearly 400 years apart. And yet, the events and attitudes in 1620 seem to have some similarities to 2016. Do some attitudes never change? Do we continue to fight the things we fear most? Were we not all immigrants, pilgrims, to a new life and a new land at one time or another? 
   Oh! One other thing. In early May of 1620, a new invention, the merry-go-round, was first seen at a country fair. Gives new understanding to the expression of "what goes around, comes around." Wouldn't you agree?