Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Of Roads Rather Not Travelled

Walking home from a groceries excursion, the ravine stink was sharp and constant until I made my way to the other side of the highway and on through a better stretch of road and trail, then sidestreet. But before leaving the highway, the familiar sight of brave blue, yellow, and red rectangular boards had popped up like mutant daffodils or flags at low mast. Elect or re-elect, then genuflect. Kindly be influenced by this reminder, peon, and march to the ballot box. The nose-holding went on, unabated.

The other night I watched part one of the American Civil War re-run on PBS. A Lincoln quote -- "I would rather be assassinated than see a single star removed from the American flag" -- reminded me, by somber contrast, of our current lie-with-a-smile season, and to that shameful episode not long ago when post-election Stephane Dion and Jack Layton formed a coalition with Duceppe.

Revisiting the ravine or trundling off to the poll booth. What to do, what to do ....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's true. Conversations with the bloq about coalitions are so 2004...

Brian Palmu said...

That's true, too. But the values informing those decisions are timeless.

Anonymous said...

Sure. A fair rebuttal.