I've been a baaaad Blogger

My posts have been few and far between since summer, but now that my sorority's fundraiser is over, I can get back to regular pursuits.

Today is election day here in Lake County, Indiana. The races being contested are the municipal offices like mayor and city council. We have quite a mayor's race in my town of Hobart. The incumbent mayor lost in her bid for a fourth term in the primaries in May, so we are guaranteed a new mayor for the next four years. I don't really want to go into the race, suffice it to say it's been fairly dirty, and if there had been a "None of the Above" choice, I would have taken that one.

I've been re-reading Frank Herbert's Dune books for the past few months, and something I read in them really hit home for me. I used to believe that power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. But Herbert made the statement in "Heretics of Dune" to the effect that power attracts the corruptable. This is exactly the case in this county, and to a lesser degree the city. These offices attract the people with the least favorable attributes in our society: bullies, liars, thieves. I paint with a broad brush here, and I understand there are exceptions to every rule. There are good public servants who work hard at thankless tasks for not much money and are under appreciated. Unfortunately, these officials are scarce and definately the exception.

Until we the people really take the time to consider who we are voting for instead of blindly pulling one or the other straight party levers, we will continue to get exactly the government we deserve. Eva Peron was right when she said this 50 years ago.