April 30, 2012

NO LAUGHING MATTER

One of the most important magazines a person is asked to read also among the dullest. I’m speaking of the voters’ pamphlet. I found one stuffed into my mailbox recently and frankly, I’d rather read the advertisements on my packet of toilet paper than sort through all the political claims.

I feel guilty about my attitude and know that for the love of my country I should give this gray and black manual my due diligence. Certainly, citizen have given more — sometimes their lives.

I’ve been in politics, so I forgive the candidates for being dull. I’ve never read a resume that made me laugh… not on purpose, that is. But when it comes to writing explanatory statements for ballot measures, bureaucrats seem to take sadistic pleasure in writing at though for WWII’s  Enigma code:

          Charter Section 2-105(a)(50) currently states that the City has the power to define what materials are obscene, to prohibit distribution and to punish persons who distribute such materials…This measure would delete Section 2-105(a)(5) to make the Charter consistent with the Oregon Constitution. Deletion of this section of the City’s specific powers would not impair the City’s general powers…. Etc., etc. etc.

Why is it that even when the subject is obscenity, the bureaucrats manage to put me to sleep?  Something should be done to perk up the voters’ interests. Maybe a few jokes sprinkled among the pages would help, like the one below.

(courtesy of politicalhumor.about.com)

There’s a danger in this approach, of course. As someone wiser than me observed, the problem with political jokes is that they get elected.