Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Election Returns

This is from Richard Brautigan's "Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork." It's one in a long series entitled "Group Portrait Without The Lions (Available Light)"

Morgan

Part 12

Morgan finished second in his high school
presidential election in 1931.

He never recovered from it.

After that he wasn't interested in people
any more. They couldn't be counted on.
He has been working as a night watchman
at the same factory for over thirty years now.
At midnight he walks among the silent equipment.
He pretends they are his friends and they like
him very much. They would have voted
for him


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I am distressed by the public's seeming lack of trust in the recount process (in the senate race between Franken and Coleman). The law is clear, the procedures are spelled out, the responsible officials (county auditors, election judges, the Secretary of State) are for the most part not political hacks, the process is transparent (both parties have observers), and the courts provide a fallback. What's not to trust?

1 comment:

  1. Jim:

    I think the answer is found in the RB poem: the public is the one not to trust. Sadly.

    Perhaps its just that the kind of people that answer polls or complain are always negative, so that's what we hear. But there is a reason that folks like Vonnegut and Twain had a strong streak of misanthropy.

    Don @ Lilliput

    ReplyDelete

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