So, just when I step up to the plate and pay for my UserLand subscription, I immediately take two weeks off from blogging. Disgraceful...

So much for lamentation. I've got lots of thoughts stored up for ya.

I met a man last night named John Eastman. He is the Natural Law Party's candidate for governor of Ohio in the upcoming November election. His ideas had enough appeal to me to prompt me to place a bumper sticker on my car for only the second time in my life (the first was for Free the Mouse).

Nothing Eastman said sounded like a politician. Politicians tend to say things that sound like something but really they're nothing. I guess that's what happened to Janet Reno in Florida. But no, John tended to say things like (these are my remembrances, not direct quotes):

"Renewable energy just needs to happen. Someone needs to have the guts to say, like JFK did, "We're going to the moon. We don't know how every little thing is going to work, but we're going to the moon. Renewable energy is a direction who's time has come. We may not have figured out every detail about hydrogen fuel cell filling stations or solar cell efficiency, but we just have to make it happen. As governor, I would have authority over every state agency, and I will make them understand that the pursuit of renewable energy is a top priority."

"As far as traffic in urban areas, I am in favor of MORE CONGESTION. Any Department of Transportation planner will tell you that whenever we widen the freeways or build more roads, it is always a temporary solution. When we create less congestion, people feel okay about moving further out into the country, creating suburban sprawl and reducing the urgency in peoples' minds for alternatives, like public transportation. If there is more traffic congestion, people will quickly get fed up with it and begin to search for alternatives, which will lead us into better choices. Many communities have already chosen more congestion as the best option. The creation of cul-de-sacs, crescents and non-contiguous streets through residential areas make for more congestion, so people don't cut through those areas. If we take that to a larger scale and use it at a city level, we can also create some new alternatives that will be better for the city, the citizens and the environment."

"Paul Ray wrote a book on 'cultural creatives.' This group makes up 36% of all Americans, but they haven't figured out that they are part of a 'movement' yet. They are all acting independently to change the world for the better. Someone is going to unite these people (holistic healers, renewable energy advocates, new age spiritualists, agricultural co-operative members, organic farmers, environmental activist, etc.) and it might as well be the Natural Law Party. We are the closest in perspective to the cultural creative."

These aren't exactly timid politico statements. I was surprised. It's as if a bunch of people sat around a room and asked "If we could build a platform that would totally satisfy that Chaords guy on Salon.com, what would it be?" Dang.

So, anyway, I now have a John Eastman for Governor bumpersticker on my car. My wife tells me its going to leave a sticky residue on the paint after I take it off in November. I figure better to have a sticky residue on my car than on the state of Ohio.

11:51:09 PM    comment []