BIGGER STAGE - SMALLER BUT NOT LESSER PARTS

BIGGER STAGE - SMALLER BUT NOT LESSER PARTS

I’ve been recently getting so into the local scene, political and just plain local stuff, new business, neighborhood issues and the like, that I’ve seemed to be losing interest in the bigger picture stuff. The stuff that got me into this in the first place. Trying to campaign for local people like Karen Buie and losing my zeal for the bigger candidates, the bigger issues, that kind of thing. My other blog site deals with those “smaller” things.
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http://bottomuppolitics.blogspot.com---------------
Those things seemed more interesting. Then I realized it’s the personal touch that I find appealing. Being able to talk with the owner of Benson Drug. Having him say hi to me in the store, or talking with Karen Buie in the evening to see what I could help her with if anything. I’m realizing people like to just be acknowledged as human, me included. As Martha would say “It’s a Beautiful Thing”.

I was looking over some of my old posts on this site to find material to blog about when it dawned on me. “Big” politics can be personal too. For example. I had blogged about the bill in the State Senate, about making a constitutional amendment, about the ability for the state to raise taxes. It would have made it harder to do that. I had talked personally with our Senator once about it back when I blogged about it. Yesterday I had called his Lansing office and talked with his assistant Jeff Cobb (SP), trying to see what had happened to the bill. Jeff said he would talk with the sponsor of the bill a state senator Roger Kahn from Saginaw and he would get back to me. Well Jeff Cobb called me back today to tell me that the bill was in committee and would die there for this year. I said that there might be hope for it next year I put in my 2 cents. I let him know I was interested in it and how the bill failed to get the necessary 2/3 vote for passage by only 1 vote. The Republicans are in the minority so that told me we were getting some bipartisan support to get the vote that close. I made sure to tell him that I a private citizen support their position. A small Thing.

Well I then googled state, senator, Michigan, Kahn as that was all I knew, which got me to his website then his telephone number it was toll free and I called. Talked with a charming lady who seemed truly pleased to hear from an actual voter not a lobbyist. After showing my command of the subject (yeah I do have an ego) I told her thanks and to please make sure to tell Senator Roger Kahn thanks for the effort and to think about trying it next year. Then I also slipped in my support of the Transparency bill of Jack Hoogendyk and the efforts along the same lines by Mike Cox our Attorney General. It finally came home to me that I was again interested and that I had gained that interest because It had become personal, I had done that small thing. I reitterate, it became interesting to me again, in a small but no less important way I made it matter by doing something. If you think there’s not a difference think about it the next time your talking to and button pushing through a computer generated voice phone menue thing just to get to talk to an operator. Maybe it won’t get anything big done. But I felt better for doing it. To wax philosophical just for a sentence, that personal thing is the defining characteristic of how well a democracy works, the personal involvement of the citizens. Like giving out candy at the Fruitport parade this Memorial Day, I mean those kids can’t even vote. But it’s making politics personal, they feel good and I do too.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative