Not as Political as One Would Imagine

I nearly choked during the SOTU message last week when Bush nominated his wife to head up the youth and gang thing. I don't think that came from any feelings I have about him or his politics, it's just ludicrous. I was never in a gang, but I certainly wouldn't listen to any middle-aged white woman about it.

But that's not the point.

Today she was interviewed on the news. Her hair was perfect. In a move that could only make sense to executives who never do any actual work she told Jim Lehrer how this came about. I imagine all first ladies have to find some cause, and Laura Bush had been "reading newspapers" and "compiling statistics" on troubled youth, or, as she put it, "boys." She said something about liking boys, or something like that, and I thought of Michael Jackson, but that's not the point either.

I get this mental image of her going through papers, seeing that there are troubled youth in the world, and then assembling some task force to get "information" on the problem. "Why," she says, "these boys need help. I will give it to them."

What she's going to do as gang czar isn't anything practical, like stepping aside and letting someone with street cred head it up. No, she's going to create a task force (the first step of any good executive) and study it. That's the second step of anyone in charge, not to do anything, but to study it. We should measure our grass before cutting it, even though anyone can see that it needs trimming!

Anyway, she's "discovered" two great programs in the first two cities she's already visited! One might think that's because other people, credible ones, have already discovered this "problem." Anyway, her group and mission will be to mention to other cities what these people are doing. Because she's an executive, she need not wonder if they already know about this, if there isn't already groups and conventions and meetings where the problem is discussed. Nope, she can just plunge right in and solve the problem.

Or, more truthfully, tell group A how group B is handling it.

I say this isn't political because I'd feel just as sad if Teresa Kerry were doing it.

(oh, a little writing stuff in "more")



It's like writing downhill to do this revision now!

Maybe I'm not paying enough attention, and it's not going quickly, but it's enjoyable to see what I've written and write it all better. The only disturbing thing is that I'm cutting out lots of what I once thought was funny. One of the things people have liked about TRE is that it was funny, but now I see a lot of it as pretentious. Or lame.

Not sure if I'm right in getting rid of so much "flavorful writing," but there it is. I hope to still leave the essence of it, maybe even sharpen it up a bit, but I just don't know if I find it flat because I know it's coming or if it really is.

These are things I struggle with. A fresh joke isn't funny the seventh time you see it, and I do remember laughing once at some of the expressions I'd forgotten I put in there. Now that I know them, I think they're dumb, but I may be wrong.