- Bluto Blutarski (John Belushi), from Animal House
The novel in which I am one of the main characters is set in the 1980's and 1990's*. That's one of the fun things about being a character - I am "frozen" in my 30's, so to speak. I never age (unless, of course, my author, Sienna, wants me to). But, that's not the point here.
I was taught long ago as a child that it's the people that decide our government and make our government what it is, for better or worse. Of course, when I was a kid, Howdy Doody was an immensely popular TV show, and working computers where you could talk to someone in an entirely different continent were the stuff of science fiction movies and books.
Nowadays, I have learned quite a bit living in Sienna's head and watching the comings and goings of everyday 21st century life. Even politics has changed - and sadly, in my opinion, it's for the worse. Just like everything else in Sienna's life, politics has become big business. Once the province of everyday people, politics has become somewhat of a more corporate endeavor these days. Every major (and many minor) "grass roots" organization is backed either by a large corporation or by some huge foundation (are you listening, Mr. Corporate-Billionaire-Rival-who-tried-to-waste-me-last-summer? HEL-LOOO!!!! What groups are YOU backing these days? Please say it's the imported beer and spirits lobby - we need more Amstel and Cuervo, not to mention a few good Effen martinis!)
Now I hear there's even a group of people who refer to themselves as "tea partiers" (I have another name for them which starts with "tea", but I can't say it here). They had a large rally right across the street from where Sienna works one day and they were very obnoxious. They gave all kinds of speeches about how people need to get back to the "good old days" of how government was ran. If that means allowing corporate America to run the country, then they've already got their wish - why are they whining??!! Oh - something about letting the health insurance companies run healthcare? Don't they do that already???
Anyway, these are my opinions - you may have differing ones, and I respect that. Hey - I've got an idea - why doesn't that guy who runs the Twitter feed S#!t My Dad Says run for president? He'd probably win if all his 1 million + followers voted for him! And he'd probably shut up those tea bag - er, I mean tea partiers and send them packing. Maybe. And then Sienna could get back to work.
*All characters, plots, storylines and indicata associated with Being Dilly copyright (c) 2009, 2010 by Sienna Berton. All rights reserved.
