Youth Will be Served

On this day in 2012, little Bobby Tufts was elected mayor of Dorset, MN. At four years old he was very likely the youngest mayor in the country. Two years later, he was re-elected, but lost to a 16 year old rival in 2016. The townsfolk had apparently had enough of Mayor Tufts' temper tantrums and disjointed speeches, so they opted for maturity.

This is not as remarkable as it first appears. Dorset, a tiny village in the beautiful lake country of north central Minnesota, surrounded by five state forests, holds its mayoral elections in a unique way: Names of nominees -- dozens, usually -- are placed in a hat during the town's biennial fair and a name is drawn to challenge the incumbent. The winner is elected by acclimation, which usually involves some beer and much shouting and laughter. Sounds like a pretty decent way to do it.

I'd put the age of our current President at about six. Give me pretty much any 16 year old instead.

Mayor Tufts grew up not far from Hibbing, which as every school child knows is the town where Bob Dylan grew up. Dylan wrote a song about being young.

Here's a poem by Richard Brautigan that's kind of related.

"Ah, Great Expectations!"

Sam likes to say, "Ah, great expectations!"
at least three or four times in every
conversation. He is twelve years old.
Nobody knows what he is talking about when
he says it. Sometimes it makes people
     feel uncomfortable.