Strom Thurmond Dies
Yes, I know Strom Thurmond died, but I’m not dedicating my blog to him for a day. First of all, he isn’t a friend or family member of mine. Second, I voted against him every chance I had. I met him when I was in high school. I won’t tell you how long ago that was, but it was a while before he retired. His manner made me think he wasn’t quite all there that day. I didn’t understand why people kept voting for him. But I guess I didn’t really understand why people voted for him in the first place. His office was suppose to send us pictures of the visit, but I never got mine, come to think of it.
June 27th, 2003 at 10:55 am
One of my roommates at USC (Columbia) voted for Strom Thurmond. When I asked her why, she said that because he had remained in office so long he obviously must be good for the state and deserved to be re-elected. I have heard similar arguments made in NC (mostly by my distant relatives) for voting for Jesse Helms. I suppose there could be worse reasons…
July 2nd, 2003 at 2:18 pm
In response to Veronica’s post, I’m reminded of an anticdote between Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent in Duglass Adams’ “Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” In it Ford is talking about how a race of humans being oppressed by a race of lizards on a distant planet was a perfect example of democracy. WHen Arthur asked why the humans kept voting the lizards into office, instead of a human, or something that wouldn’t oppress them, Ford replied that they all believed if they didn’t vote for the lizard in office at the time, the wrong lizard would win, thus the same oppressive lizards stayed in power.
My interpertation of that little story from HGTTG is don’t settle for the status quo, make a change if you think it will be better.