Suboptimist

No! Money Down!

A few observations:

Observation one: I was eating dinner with my father (Bob) a few nights ago, and a few things came up. On the topic of looking past people’s faults, the context of which I will not delve into, he mentioned his early skepticism of the Civil Rights Movement — mind you, my father is from upstate New York, and didn’t see the injustice in the South at the time. In later years, before I was born, he served in the Utah legislature as the Republican representative of the Capitol Hill area of Salt Lake City.

A bill came to the floor calling for the recognition of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in Utah. This being Utah, another state relatively isolated from the turbulence of the South, there was of bound to be opposition. A colleague of his, another Republican, came to the floor, recalling his LDS mission to the South. He recalled the injustice experienced by people of color. At that moment, my father has come to a realization that the Civil Rights Movement was necessary. Sure, he was aware of King’s womanizing, plagiarism, and hot temper, but in spite of these faults, he was able to do tremendous good. My father decided to not only vote for the bill, but to become an avid spokesman for it.

His colleagues encouraged him not to. They told him he would lose his base and the election, which he ultimately did. Bob says it was the greatest thing he ever did in the legislature.

Observation two: in the same conversation, Bob noted that Orrin Hatch’s campaign slogan his first election was, ‘What do you call a senator who has served for 18 years? You call him home.” Orrin Hatch has been in office 36 years.

One more thing since the server has been down and I have been given time to make another observation: there are rabbits running around the University of Utah campus. Or, at least, I think there are. Maybe I am hallucinating.