"Almost anyone can stand adversity. To test a person's
character, give him or her power."
Abraham Lincoln
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RICH'S RANTS
'Twas the Night before Christmas, actually, 'twas about
a month before, we decided if we were to give the children a
good Christmas, Peggy would have to get a Christmas job. We
had one of our famous, or infamous, family meetings to
discuss "Mom working outside of the home." The teenagers
liked the idea of getting a lot of presents, so the die was
cast. They agreed to pick up the slack in Peggy's absence.
Now you've got to know, this was no mean feat. We had 2
teenagers watching 4 young 'uns. They'd have to watch the
kids for about 2 hours each evening, between 4 to 6, and
longer on days I went to school. And other chores were making
dinner, doing the laundry and washing dishes. Still, we
thought: they were 15 and 14, and if it didn't work, oh
well, we tried.
It did work out okay, but that isn't why I recount this
life experience. The first day Peggy went to work was a
school night for me. I rolled in full of skepticism around
9 PM. To my surprise, my fears were not realized. The house
was orderly and quiet. The two youngest were already in bed
(we had staggered bedtimes, 30 minutes apart, starting with
the youngest, dictated by the fact we had but a single
bathroom). With a sigh of relief, I thanked the oldest kids,
and then went into the bathroom before the next half hour
cycle started.
That's when I noticed a sign, all in capitals: PUT LID
DOWN WHEN THROUGH. When I returned to the kitchen, I saw
a sign I missed earlier: put dishes in sink. Taped to the
side of the washer was a sign: "<---- whites colored -----
>". The house was covered in signs, "no jumping on the bed",
"no drinks after 8"; "put garbage in pail"; "DO NOT FEED
FISH", "no TV until homework is finished", and so on. All
together there had to be 10 signs or more. When Peg got home
we had a good laugh about it, and decided we could make it
thru the holiday season.
Yesterday I left the house, as I always do, took a right
at the light, on 2nd street. At the next corner there were 3
lights, one over each lane and one on the corner. When I got
to Small Street, I was faced with 3 similar signals again.
This was the first cross road, so there were 12 control
lights, 3 from each direction. These were all hung on
tornado proof metal poles. All this, and I was only half way
to Main Street.
I'm not sure what it means, but I became acutely aware
of the eerie similarities with my decades old experience
back in Lynn, MA. The Grand Prairie powers employed the same
techniques to traffic control as my older kids used to
control their brother and younger sisters. (Forget that 2 of
them were preschool age, and couldn't read their signs.)
Why does it take 3 top-of-the-line traffic signals to
tell me to stop or go at virtually every intersection? Is it
because they don't trust me to see/obey a single signal
stuck on a pole? Why do they need a dozen lights using 3 doz
bulbs to tell me if it was safe to go (assuming the guy on
the cross street didn't jump the light). Did they forget,
I've got eyes and a brain too? These modern metal posts with
their overhanging lights must cost tens of thousands of
dollars. I know they don't have to pay for them, we do.
Perhaps you think I'm some kind of nut worrying about
how much electric 36 bulbs at every intersection costs, NOT.
Govt wastes much more money than that everyday before they
turn the switchboard on in the morning. What bothers me is:
the Fathers of the City think they have the right to control
me just like my teenagers tried controlling their siblings;
and I don't respond well to being controlled like a 4-year-
old. Further, it doesn't say much for their leadership
skills when they act like a couple of teenagers.
Let me leave you with this one sobering thought, a
thought our Forefathers knew all too well, when they
designed our Constitution based on checks-and-balances:
"Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Author Unknown.
THE TRUTH IS...
- A. Powerful.
- B. Irrelevant.
- C. In the eye of the beholder.
- D. All of the above.
