60 Days

Where the hell have I been for the past two months? Was I drafted by a secret government agency to perform counter-terrorist espionage, but then abducted by aliens intent on finding out what makes a biker tick, only to escape when they were too engrosed watching an episode of American Chopper (you know the one, where Paul Jr. is fed up with Sr., and brother Michael is the only one remaining somewhat calm while the inevitable last minute problems threaten the deadline for the build)?

Not particularly.

So, what, then? What kept me away? Well, you know. Eh. Just whatever. Kinda got bored with blogging. Life was plodding along, and bloggable items seemed somewhat scarce. I did advance a rank in my Jiu Jutsu training. But do you really need to know that? Nah.

So why should 60 days go by without anything worth blogging about? How can that be? Am I turning into a couch-sitting version of that root plant made famous in Idaho? Gawd, I hope not.

Actually, we had a nasty leak in the line leading from the house to the sewer, and spent gobs of money figuring out where the leak was and fixing it. In the process, some 3 and 4 foot holes were dug after tearing out some concrete, and we found some very cool old bottles, probably from about 55 years ago when this place was built.

Ok, so this is hardly the biting social commentary I usually write. Gimme a break, will ya? Should I talk about Bush and Kerry? Man, I'm gonna cry for having to vote for either one. I ain't no partisan, so it's up to the candidate, and I'm sure at this point we just have shit for choices.

Overall, Kerry will be a mediocre and unremarkable President who will talk reasonably well. Bush... well, there's more than enough said about him and the current administration. But I am sure that voting for any other candidate is a de facto vote for Bush or Kerry (sorry, ye fans of Green/Libertarian/American Independent/etc. parties).

And it is also around 60 days before we vote one of these schmoes into the office of President of the United States of America. I do think the position is NOT as powerful as the phrase "Leader of the Free World" would make it sound. For one thing, one is not really elected a "leader". One is a leader and does the things of leadership or one is not and can not. No election needed.

I just wish folks would take the few hours of time it needs to study the Constitution of our country just enough, and without party bias, and with a bit of perspective as to what the men who created that document were confronting, so as to understand what those men put in place, and how it should work.

Yeah, there are those who cry the document is outmoded. I think every one such person has a personal, business or political agenda that is impeded by a document that guarantees protection of individual and certain civil rights. In other words, it is outmoded if you can profit by its erosion or destruction.

I think surprisingly few Americans actually know what they should expect from their government and each other. Yet it is only that expectation and insistence on its realization that keeps our country here at all. It isn't guns, Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, police or laws.

How about it -- find a copy of the Constitution without anybody's special-interest annotations or "explanations", and just read it, look up the words in a good dictionary, and decide for yourself what the most basic agreements we live under actually are.

A. Biker