Resolutions Unlimited: Politicos Proclaim Oblivion in Unison

Can the Noble Globe Community Gained Credibility and Lived Happily Ever After?

Aerial view of the Oregon State Capitol Salem-News.com photo by Tim King

(SALEM, Ore.) - Once upon a time our office-holder friends proclaimed to their constituents that they were the messianistic missionaries of feats undone. If elected and not rejected, they went on, their 2011 resolutions would prove revolutionary and not only change the country but forever upgrade the beloved planet. They were very polished in the art of producing high-grade hyperbole. These would-be civic geniuses from the Genus Homo Omniscienca promised us a future free from war, ethnic strife, disease, doom, and deficit.

They pledged themselves to eternal joy and perfect prosperity and even liberation from mad mudslinging during election season. Their version of the US Utopia lay on the horizon if only our clouded lenses could perceive the implausible. Without winking an eyelash, this cadre of calumny was duly elected for yet another term and they thrived in oblivion while the rank-and-file citizen still continued to struggle and suffer. On April 1st these foolhardy voters conducted a mass recall of the promise-breakers and they broke the back of one corrupt machine after another.

It was as if the election booth had offered the choice of "delete" and so these buck-hungry buccaneers went down neatly to defeat. In their steads a stalwart band of honesty-prone advocates were elected. They promised zero... and gallantly achieved just what they promised. And our Noble Globe Community gained credibility and lived happily ever after.

Salem-News.com Community Writer Barry Lee Coyne brings to our readers stories from his combined career of journalism and gerontology, and explains that these paths shaped his values. Lee Coyne once worked for The Civil Service Leader in NY State and covered the Legislature. He has also done features on mediation and arbitration, and believes in healthy skepticism. This writer-therapist often views the world as the masks of comedy and tragedy placed upon the scales of justice. For him, optimism inevitably wins. "Lyrical Lee" has traveled to 30 nations aboard and was once a press intern at the UN. His first published article was in The NY Daily News in '59, dealing with the need for integrity in public office.

He also launched the nation's first tele-conference on health education for shut-ins, created the Eldermentors project in VA to pair retirees with immigrant students needing role models, and was the main catalyst behind CCTV's "Public Public" panel show here in Salem. Lee received his BA in International Relations and an MSW in community organization. He currently serves as a member of Salem's Library Advisory Board. To send Lee an email, please write to this address: luckycoyne@yahoo.com