The View From Squag City

I have some thoughts on 2014.  Not a lot, mind you, because the year is very young, but just some thoughts.

1.   We will all be poorer, culturally, politically and musically, because Pete Seeger has died.  I was seven or eight when my older brother brought home a wonderful album (they were discs played on a record player) by the Weavers. It opened a whole new world to me, offering the sound of what we would come to call folk music, coupled with the conscience of informed activists like Seeger and his fellow members of the Weavers.  He was a man who made a difference in this world, fighting for fairness, an end to racism and the preservation of our planet.  I guess I hoped he would just go on and on, but everything has an end.  Thank you Pete.

2.   This will be the year the Koch brothers and their cronies try to grab the political power of the Granite State, so they can achieve their ultimate aim, electing a compliant Congress that will do even more of their bidding.  The brothers will do this by spending huge amounts of their money attacking and lying about independent Senators like Jeanne Shaheen.  Our newspapers and TV stations should be covering this political “snatch and grab”, but newspapers and TV stations make a lot of money off of the kind of advertisements the Koch brothers fund, and only a small amount of print has been dedicated to the story so far.  What we need is campaign finance reform, and an end to the right wing Citizens United nonsense that corporations are “people” in the political arena. We better wake up pretty soon, or our democracy will be gone.

3.   While Governors in other states seem determined to pursue outrageous behavior as a way to entertain their constituents, our Governor continues to employ government for the good of the people, even though that may sometimes seem less exciting.  I say keep it up Governor:  I would hate to experience the kind of traffic lane tomfoolery they have in New Jersey when I cross the covered bridge to Vermont.

4.   Finally, every one of us has been given a gift by Doris Kearns Goodwin, the author of “Bully Pulpit: Roosevelt, Taft, and the Muckraking Press”.  As she did in her book “Team of Rivals”, Kearns Goodwin has laid out the history of events that shaped our lives in a way that puts the core issues of our current debates into context and focus.  Every American should read it, or listen to it read by Edward Hermann.  A lot of foolishness that will be said in the course of the upcoming elections will be shown up for what it is to those who are fortunate enough to experience her book.  Thank you professor.

5.   And that’s it for now!