The Silly Season

        I spent my entire adult life working in the political arena. I have long ago become inured to the nutty and irrelevant comments, charges and counter charges, that we hear in the “silly season.” It is that period of time, just before elections, when some candidates say the oddest and most unkind things imaginable, so that others might think less of their opponent.

       The grand irony of this process is that it is human nature to think rather more less of the person making the untoward comments than of the intended target of the slander. I suspect it is because most of us have been raised with a good deal of common sense, by hard working parents who had little, in the way of material things, and had no time for nonsense. They dealt with real issues like debt, education, health care, putting food on the table and other vital issues on a daily basis. They knew, in their heart of hearts, what was important in life.

      So, on behalf of many of us, raised in these humble yet practical circumstances, I have to ask the perennial question somewhat plaintively, “Where’s the beef?” When are all of the candidates, running for the highest office in the land, going to start telling us what they will do, if elected, to improve the economy, address the dire problems of immigration, health care, the environment and the education of our children? How are they going to deal with some of the rascals in the world to insure our collective safety? And, what else will they propose to carry out the grand notions upon which this nation was founded some two hundred and forty years ago?

       Once they answer all of these important questions, then they can stand back and resume throwing mud pies at each other and no one will care. Until then, lets knock off the silliness and deal with the real issues facing us! We, as a nation, deserve a better dialogue, than which we are currently getting.           Unless we the voters vocally demand more, we will get more of the same silliness from all sides. I always believed in the American ideals and precepts that we were taught as children. I have always felt a deep and abiding admiration for the United States Constitution, and all three branches of our Federal Government. We are the democratic wonder of the modern world. We send our young men and women into harms way, and contribute billions to the safety and well being of others. And we do this not because it is in our self-interest, but because it is the right thing to do. It is who and what we are as a nation. Perhaps our candidates, at all levels, should think more about who we are before saying some of the silly things that they utter.

        May God Bless the many ideals that we hold dear in these United States of America. And our fervent Thanks to all of her valiant defenders, past and present. I hope, going forward, that we can collectively show a little respect for these ideals and their defenders, in the daily transactions of our electoral process.

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                          Joseph Xavier Martin