Sanity; not fear

Leave it to a comedian to being some levity to a nasty place, and a nasty world.

I watched the Rally Restore Sanity on You Tube, and I had some high expectations. Maybe even impossibly high expectations that could never be met.

Indeed, much of what I saw showed that this would be more Lenny Bruce than MLK. Gags, skits, energy - almost all funny, but not the stuff that would suddenly inspire the apathetic non-voter, the non-thinker to rethink themselves and their lives.

But the one scene that, in Steve Colbert terms, hit from the gut, was from Jon Stewart's closing speech, one that he said would be serious even if it violated the "boundaries" set by others, the boundaries that call Stewart more of a comedian than a leader.

It was a metaphor about togetherness, and it was about a tunnel, and how, every day, traffic snakes into the funnel-like tunnel even as the entrance squeezes them into a tube the size of a straw.

It was the moment that exceeded my expectations, and had me hooked.

These are people are of every political persuasion, with bumper stickers pasted to their bumpers that promote guns or peace, animals or hunting, sanity or insanity. They are the people who could be glued to cable TV, and get a charge out of the level of partisanship thrown at their faces by cable TV talk-show hosts with ulterior motives.

Or they could be people who are just heading into the city because the city is where they make their money. And, to paraphrase Stewart, they're people who don't necessarily identify themselves as Republican or Democrat, Tea Partier or left-wing radical. They're people who view themselves as people who are always late for something.

Yet the people behind the wheel forget what their stickers, what the pundits say and what the politicians say once they pass through toll at the Lincoln or Holland tunnels. All they say to each other as they enter the tunnel is this: You go...I go...You go....I go....

I hope that's a metaphor that can trickle down - and not only wash the stain of partisanship that threatens to destroy our presidency, our Congress and our leaders. I hope it's something that will wash on the voting public as they go to the polls tomorrow, and decide whether they're about to make is something they can believe in - and not just a vote that makes a point.

I look, again, to Point Pleasant, N.J., and the news that's come from there, my hometown, and the news from the other Jersey Shore towns, and the news from places like Brick Township. I look at politics that are based on a premise of fear, and even deception.

Tomorrow, in Point Pleasant, the people will determine whether Susan Rogers gets to be mayor, even as she's claimed to have roots in the community that likely never existed.

As I've written on http://www.jerseyshorenews.org, my Jersey Shore news site for Patch.com, they will walk into the voting booth and see her name. Some will push the button for her, because they could never consider voting for a Democrat.

Others may think twice - and perhaps even ponder what they saw in the police accounts - one in particular - that have focused on Rogers and her behavior. It's behavior that, some say, shows how she's misused her power as an elected official to launch a police investigation after two supporters posted comments about her son on a Facebook campaign page.

I look at Rogers, much like I look at a lot of politicians. I see her as I view Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, who said their main goal after tomorrow's election is to make President Obama a one-term president.

I see them cutting off somebody to get in that tunnel, and it's not so much about being impulsive or trying to catch up because their late.

Its about winning, and gaining power, whatever the cost.

Stewart's words were great. But it was another comedian said it best. The late Bill Hicks, a combination comedian and prophet, offered these words nearly 20 years ago.

He came up with these words just as he learned he was dying from cancer. As weak as he was, they were words from the gut, and from the heart:

"It's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, not work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love."