In memory of democracy

If your relatives are anything like mine, visitors to family gatherings come away with the same question. They have no trouble figuring who likes to talk. What they can’t figure out is who listens.

It’s much the same on In-Your-Face-book, which despite slipping into semi-obscurity elsewhere seems to remain the No. 1 anti-social media platform here.

We at the newspaper often are troubled that no one will react to important news, but all we have to do is mention a particular name originally spelled “Drumpf,” and a torrent of bile and venom rivaling ’51 floodwaters spews forth.

It’s kind of like the war with Iran. It’s not as if there’s actual discussion or movement forward. It’s just bomb after bomb being hurled by one side or the other with no end in sight.

That’s why we’ve designated the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as the Man Whose Name We Dare Not Mention.

He’s in the same category as the bot on our smart speaker — the Woman Whose Name We Dare Not Mention — but for radically different reasons.

Mention her name and her electronic ears perk up, ready to misunderstand whatever words follow.

Mention his name and readers’ hackles rise up, ready to attack with often mistaken mudslinging something that usually is totally unrelated to what Mr. 1600 actually has done, claimed, retracted, or threatened.

Pleasant as our hometown might be at times, we must recognize that we live in a drive-by town in a fly-over state that has little if any ability to alter any of the issues In-Your-Face-bookers love to rant about.

That doesn’t mean we’re powerless. Plenty of issues in our own community we should be focused on. And those often become topics we can work on together, resolving our disagreements rather than intentionally making them more extreme.

Much as some people seem to think of national politics as a macabre game in which all the moves involve insults, we’re opting to make the only winning move — refusing to play the game. That way we can focus on what can be done instead of what can’t.

We hope you’ll play along. Do your homework by reading up on local issues, then speak out about them at meetings, in letters to the editor, or even by running for office.

Political discussion is like driving a manual transmission. You have to engage the clutch before engaging a gear. The clutch is your brain. The gear is that big hole flapping above your chin.

It’s not the only hole on our heads. Two small ones on either side, somewhat below where there is or used to be hair, also are important, just as listening to the sound of a revving engine helps you figure out when to clutch.

Think, speak, and listen are the holy trinity of democracy. Politics may have become unholy nationally, but we can keep the faith in democracy locally.

So, no more mentioning The Man Whose Name We Dare Not Mention unless he shows up on our doorstep. We also won’t give our vote to anyone whose main platform involves exclusively supporting or opposing him.

We’re going to do the one thing that attention hogs hate the most — ignore the ranting and reserve our raving for real things that affect real people in the real town where we live.

Fail to do so and we transform democracy into a bad imitation of a bad reality show — or worse.

This week, handfuls of people — not enough, but still some — honored those who honored America with their service. Will generations to come look back on what passes for patriotism today as quibbling over how to line up chaises on the Titanic?

— ERIC MEYER