June 21, 2006
Wednesday

Someone (about my age) tells me of now and then awakening in the wee hours of the morning (he does this often now) and how the mind takes control and starts to review a whole bunch of things. Last night it was politics (U.S.type) and how states and regions think differently on this subject, and now and again food would flash on the screen.

It was Tip O'Neil who said, "All politics are local." If so, it may equate to geographical politics. Since food comes in the middle of his political wanderings, consider then that food is geographical and regional in our country, too. Not too many Eskimos spiced their stew with black-eyed peas. His recounting of these dreams causes me to think back, say some seventy years, plus or minus. If one took a sampling of political thought then and from every area of the U.S. and blended them all together in a stew, chances are the result would have gone down politically well, and even been tasty. Not today!

If one tried today to blend together political food for thought from each geographic area of the U.S. and make it into a stew, chances are it would not blend well, and the end product would never pass government food and drug tests for human consumption. The items submitted from Middle America for such a stew would probably blend well and add needed flavor for most of us. However, thoughtful ingredients submitted, say, from the Seattle or Portland areas might tend to upset some of the sought-for flavor for many. Items forwarded from the southern border states would have changed in flavor over seventy years: they would now seem too hot for many others. Contributions from the Deep South would, as of old, add pleasant warmth and good feelings to the end product.

Moving on to other areas of the U.S. and examining their offerings, consider political contributions coming from San Francisco, Palm Springs, or San Diego. Those offerings certainly would tend to spoil the pot for many others, and would probably be set aside. Now, offerings arriving from Massachusetts, New York, and a couple of New England states would have to be handled with latex gloves. DON'T USE THEM! Discard them with due care; don't leave them where the kids could get into them. They could get enough exposure to cause them to wind up in one of their public schools where you have to attend classes that explain why Johnnie has two daddies and no mommy, and at the end of the school year when awards are passed out, you get one for not falling down at recess. Also, students so exposed could require that all lessons and instructions be in the language of their choice, and you don't have to take any **** from a teacher in any language!

The reader may take this as food for thought; politics and food could be considered strange bedfellows.

Walt Bolling
Ketchikan, AK - USA

About: " Lived here fifty-plus years and have been voting even longer."

 

Send A Letter -------Read Letters

E-mail the Editor

Sitnews
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska