Dr. Metablog

Three Dreams in One Ten-Minute Period at 3 in the Morning, Eeek!

The first (the most ordinary, the least wild):  I'm sitting in a basketball stadium watching a game  (it's close to the end of the first half) when a fire drill is announced. Everyone, including me and my "date," a mysterious unknown woman whom my dreamatorium has conveniently supplied, leaves their seats. I'm now outside but I'm cold and I remember that I've left behind my denim jacket. I return to my place in the now-deserted arena but no jacket. Then I'm outside again. I locate my date and tell her about the missing denim. She serenely rises from her squat to reveal that she's been sitting on the jacket.  I wonder:  did she try to steal it?  2) The scene shifts abruptly. I'm now back fifty years, in graduate school, and I've been informed that a new requirement for the degree has been instituted. Each semester, every student will have  to drink a 20 oz. paper cup of a pink liquid (looks like Pepto-Bismol but is decidedly more mucilaginous and nasty).  3) All of a sudden i'm being pursued by a huge scary rhinoceros with an ovesize horn. I run, of course, terrified. Fortunately, I come upon a cottage size stack of carrots (large, grated, carefully arranged). I'm able to climb the pile, rather gracefully I think, but the rhino can't get any traction and I easily outdistance him. I was scared for a while but the carrots saved my life. Then I woke up.  

Are there any interpreters of dreams out there?  Clearly, Dr. M. needs your help. (Do not bother using words like "nutso" or "loco," please.  Serious interpretations only.) 

Stereotyping One Particular Class of Fellow Citizens

i've been following the Bridgegate scandal -- the vindictive sabotaging of traffic entering the George Washington Bridge by Governor Christie's staff with the connivance and wink-wink approval of the governor hmself. I'm appalled -- is this the kind of man to whom we should offer the bully pulpit? 

I've even gone so far as to read the internet comments to columns in the New York Times. While some people who take the trouble to contribute  have a reasonable point to make, there's a refrain that distresses me, all the more so because it's a sentiment that no one bothers to refute. Here are three representative examples.

"Like most politicians, the man [i.e. Governor Christie]  is a classic sociopath."

"Politicians have a truth gene missing in their DNA."

"All, and I mean all. politicians are dishonest, deceitful, untruthful and corrupt."

It's a common enough sentiment. We've all heard it.

One of our local school board members once said this to me: "When did I become untrustworthy, a liar?  When I was citizen with kids in the school, I was an honest well-meaning citizen.  But as soon as I was elected to the school board, something must have happened to me, because  I began to be accused of all kinds of chicanery and corruption. I went from 'citizen' to 'politician.'"

Or, you could say it this way: the stereotype kicked in.

I've never held public office myself, but I've known many "politicians" pretty damn well-- members of school boards, members of our city council, county officials and commissioners, many members of our state legislature, a couple of state office-holders and at least two of our representatives to Congress.  And here's what I know:  they're honest and talented people who sacrifice time and money to serve the public. They work very hard and they absorb a tremendous amount of abuse for little reward. 

Of course there are vile and corrupt politicians. But there are also very many public-spirited statesmen who rise to the challenge of governing this complicated nation of ours. 

Let us be fair to our fellow citizens.  And let us purge these ridiculous stereotypes.