An ode to Jerry Rothstein..
Sometimes I think the same ol’ same ol’ is better than upsetting the apple cart and all the apples falling away.
I liked Tam’s concerns, and his zeal, and from the get go was cautious of his unrealistic expectations that he could have any effect at all in a body such as the state house of representatives. Please, remember, it takes a consensus of 26 people to move anything along in the house, and then still has to get a majority in the senate, and the governor as well, to agree to anything. Because of such a structure, imo, the real job is to form consensus, to scratch each other’s back, to give your vote for the other guy’s projects so when your’s come up he’ll give his to you. And Tam didn’t impress me as that kind of guy.
For Tam it was all now.. he himself said things are too urgent to play along to get along. But if you and your buddies were all getting together and some new guy came along and told you about an urgency you all don’t feel you’d laugh at him. It don’t matter what kine group.. any new comer gotta bide his time.. but Tam promised otherwise and so pretty much shot himself in the foot methinks.
Some here, without any proof at all vehemently accuse Greggor of doing absolutely nothing, except “sucking teat” when in fact I suspect they have no idea what he has or hasn’t done. They just thrive on making crass remarks. Whereas Obie at least has posted several instances where Greggor has done things. But still he’s mud to a mud slinger. And I would bet my first born el muddo never spent one once of energy trying to learn the truth about any of it.
My, personal, interactions through life suggesting the ideas I want put forth, the bills I wanted supported etc., has been almost exclusively on the County Council level. And in all instances I have found my representatives responsive. Willing to meet, to listen, and explain their own perspectives. I’ve put forth ideas that got to the group meeting levels, and seen bills evolve from them. But I never dealt on the state level. Although I have to assume our representatives at state are people too. If you have an idea, and are willing to maturely pursue it, you can get an audience, you can advance it. But still it has to be something 26 representatives and 13 senators could agree to in order to gain the traction needed to get to the governor's desk. And saying you can get things done on day one, in 120 days, before the cows come home, is just nonsense.
So, what I am saying is, going along to get along has the potential for a lot more return than throwing monkey wrenches, One person said it takes visionaries to upset the order of things and let the chips fall where they may, but in the long run changes happen because of it. I can agree with that, but will point out the odds aren’t in their favor.
And, even if Tam were elected, unless there was a ground swell of like minded elected folks from all over the islands elected along side of him he ran the risk of losing Puna what otherwise we might get by alienating folks with his urgency. By not doing the good ol' go along to get along half step he ran the risk of being alienated himself. So maybe ’Tang’s right, we need to break things if we want change… break ground to plant seeds.. but damn those seeds may take a long time to sprout. Can we afford the time?
There is one thing I think people can do if they want real change. One thing that a lobbyist, or better a group of lobbyists can do that would seriously give power to even the folks on the lowest end of the totem pole. Give people the power to effect change in short order. And that is to get the state to agree to give the constituents the right of referendum. The right for the people, if we agree by popular vote, to ourselves write law. With that right someone with the zeal of Tam could do something. Whereas even if he were elected he would have had a hard row to hoe. With referendum he could focus his energy and cause movement that very well could result in change. You could, I could, any of us could have an idea, put it out there, get some traction, and cause real change. But to get the right to have a referendum we would have to get 26 representatives and 13 senators and the governor to agree to give it to us.
And still, that one right, that one law, is, by my measure far more likely than Tam barnstorming the status quo and getting even a morsel of the promises he got AI to write so voluminously about. But hey, if he channelled that energy into something as possible as the referendum..
Sometimes I think the same ol’ same ol’ is better than upsetting the apple cart and all the apples falling away.
I liked Tam’s concerns, and his zeal, and from the get go was cautious of his unrealistic expectations that he could have any effect at all in a body such as the state house of representatives. Please, remember, it takes a consensus of 26 people to move anything along in the house, and then still has to get a majority in the senate, and the governor as well, to agree to anything. Because of such a structure, imo, the real job is to form consensus, to scratch each other’s back, to give your vote for the other guy’s projects so when your’s come up he’ll give his to you. And Tam didn’t impress me as that kind of guy.
For Tam it was all now.. he himself said things are too urgent to play along to get along. But if you and your buddies were all getting together and some new guy came along and told you about an urgency you all don’t feel you’d laugh at him. It don’t matter what kine group.. any new comer gotta bide his time.. but Tam promised otherwise and so pretty much shot himself in the foot methinks.
Some here, without any proof at all vehemently accuse Greggor of doing absolutely nothing, except “sucking teat” when in fact I suspect they have no idea what he has or hasn’t done. They just thrive on making crass remarks. Whereas Obie at least has posted several instances where Greggor has done things. But still he’s mud to a mud slinger. And I would bet my first born el muddo never spent one once of energy trying to learn the truth about any of it.
My, personal, interactions through life suggesting the ideas I want put forth, the bills I wanted supported etc., has been almost exclusively on the County Council level. And in all instances I have found my representatives responsive. Willing to meet, to listen, and explain their own perspectives. I’ve put forth ideas that got to the group meeting levels, and seen bills evolve from them. But I never dealt on the state level. Although I have to assume our representatives at state are people too. If you have an idea, and are willing to maturely pursue it, you can get an audience, you can advance it. But still it has to be something 26 representatives and 13 senators could agree to in order to gain the traction needed to get to the governor's desk. And saying you can get things done on day one, in 120 days, before the cows come home, is just nonsense.
So, what I am saying is, going along to get along has the potential for a lot more return than throwing monkey wrenches, One person said it takes visionaries to upset the order of things and let the chips fall where they may, but in the long run changes happen because of it. I can agree with that, but will point out the odds aren’t in their favor.
And, even if Tam were elected, unless there was a ground swell of like minded elected folks from all over the islands elected along side of him he ran the risk of losing Puna what otherwise we might get by alienating folks with his urgency. By not doing the good ol' go along to get along half step he ran the risk of being alienated himself. So maybe ’Tang’s right, we need to break things if we want change… break ground to plant seeds.. but damn those seeds may take a long time to sprout. Can we afford the time?
There is one thing I think people can do if they want real change. One thing that a lobbyist, or better a group of lobbyists can do that would seriously give power to even the folks on the lowest end of the totem pole. Give people the power to effect change in short order. And that is to get the state to agree to give the constituents the right of referendum. The right for the people, if we agree by popular vote, to ourselves write law. With that right someone with the zeal of Tam could do something. Whereas even if he were elected he would have had a hard row to hoe. With referendum he could focus his energy and cause movement that very well could result in change. You could, I could, any of us could have an idea, put it out there, get some traction, and cause real change. But to get the right to have a referendum we would have to get 26 representatives and 13 senators and the governor to agree to give it to us.
And still, that one right, that one law, is, by my measure far more likely than Tam barnstorming the status quo and getting even a morsel of the promises he got AI to write so voluminously about. But hey, if he channelled that energy into something as possible as the referendum..