"Pizzaonia Emerging" Courtesy of the Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, curator
Musings from Pizzaonia
A random conversation between Brother Giovanni and Brother Franco - these conversations usually take place later in the evening when they have some time to relax.
F: Did you see the New York Times today? Times seem to be changing if you take the headlines seriously.
G: Yes I did. What’s going on in the United States? Every day that goes by I recognize my native country less and less.
F: Change is inevitable, and it isn’t always pretty.
G: I know, but what is happening there now doesn’t make sense.
F: I am not sure what you are saying. I know what goes on there always affects you more than me.
G: Maybe it’s my expectations. I know you consider me a naïve optimist, but what was once the hope of many for a better life seems to be slipping away.
F: I only consider you a naïve optimist when it comes to politics and our home country. I am, and I think rightly so, a realist. I don’t expect much so I am seldom disappointed. But clearly, things are changing. What we don’t know is what it all really means. Is it a phase or are we witnessing a sea change in what the United States represents and how about the future?
G: I am not as concerned with the future as I am with the immediate present. The way things are going, I am not sure there is a bright future.
F: This coming from a naïve optimist? How about being more specific. ….
G: I know it’s hard to evaluate long term from the present, but you can see patterns that can shape the future. It may be all we have, but we have to start somewhere. For one how about the way politics no longer seems to be the way we choose leaders. Elections now seem to be the playground for the super-rich. The common folks are at best spectators and from what I read not only do they feel that way; many have dropped out of the process. How can you have a true democracy if all the people no longer participate?
F: it is something to think about. It is strange that the United States has a much smaller voter turnout than other western democracies. You would think it would be the other way around. I am not sure anyone has a definitive answer.
G: I don’t think there is one but there are a lot of reasonable speculations on why this is happening. For one, as I said before when the amount of money that it now takes to play in the political arena is so enormous, it becomes hard for the ordinary citizen to be seriously involved. But, this has been evolving for years, the question that does not seem to have an answer is how different is it this time.
F: For one we hear so much about how each party has to placate its hard-core base that folks in the middle are left out. What you have left is what I like to call the "nut cases from the far left and right of each party running the show.
G: It reminds me of that wonderful political quote from Mark Twain when he said, he wasn’t sure if they were smart people putting him on, or that they were imbeciles that actually believed what they were saying.
F: Where did the rest of the voters go?
G: Either to McDonalds or to Kentucky Fried Chicken.
F: I think most of them were there already, but one thing that has played out is the old saying that all politics are local. That’s the new political playground. Local politics is where all the action is now.
G: If for no other reason, they can relate to what is happening there. God knows they know that Washington might as well be on the moon from where they sit.
The new game in town: Local politics
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