Uncommon Sense: No approach beyond reproach

Written by Jeff Morris
Wednesday, 25 November 2009 00:00

It would be really helpful if I knew what I was going to write about before I started writing. Most of the time I have a clue, but I have to be honest: This week I haven’t got the faintest idea.

I’ve been debating the various approaches I could take, but like a blob of mashed potatoes, I throw them at the wall and nothing sticks.

Should I take the “it’s Thanksgiving, so let’s put all the usual topics aside and instead list all the things for which I am thankful” approach? That seems pretty safe, but it’s not like you haven’t seen it done a million times. It’s probably a bigger snooze inducer than the tryptophan in turkey.

Should I take the “it’s now several weeks after the election, so let’s step back and take a broad view of the results, what they say about the political climate and what they mean for the future of Lewisboro” approach? Nah, it’s still too soon, and I still don’t have any real sense of what it all means. Either that, or I’m just in a continuing state of denial.

Should I take the “there’s a referendum coming up on Dec. 8 about allowing the Katonah-Lewisboro School District to use the $3,150,000 in the Capital Reserve Fund for the construction and improvement of playing fields and cultural arts facilities, so this would be a good time to tell people how I feel about that” approach? I suppose that would be the responsible, or at least the expected, thing to do. But truthfully, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m actually more curious to see how it turns out, especially since there has to be some commonality between many of those who have been clamoring for passage of this measure after promoting the need for more athletic fields for years, and many of the same people who supposedly just sent a clear message that they are fed up with higher taxes. Of course, this proposition has been cleverly set up with the parameters that none of the money can be used to lower taxes, or pay for anything else other than what the referendum asks it be used for. Still, the fact that the amount in the school district’s Capital Reserve Fund is more than a quarter of the entire budget for the town of Lewisboro — indeed, the money to be spent on this one project is about 75% of the total amount of property taxes paid to the town last year — certainly gives one pause. Though now I’m straying dangerously close to the “what was the real reason for those election results?” approach that I already rejected, so we’ll leave it at that.

Should I take the “what’s up with Assemblyman Greg Ball suddenly announcing he’s not going to run for Congress against Rep. John Hall after all, even though he’s been campaigning for the job for the past year” approach? Probably not, since it just happened and I still don’t quite know enough about the implications. On election night, when we were watching numerous Democratic incumbents swept out of office in what seemed to be (as one observer called it) a tsunami, someone said, “I don’t envy John Hall right now” and I could only nod in agreement. After all, Greg Ball’s operation had shown itself to be a well-oiled machine, capable of riling up large crowds into an anti-immigrant, anti-tax, anti-government frenzy. Heck, I even received a robo-call from Mr. Ball himself asking me to call my “current congressman’s” office to express my displeasure about Mr. Hall’s vote in favor of more funding for the troops in Afghanistan; yes, Mr. Ball had somehow transformed himself into the anti-war candidate. Yet here he is, shifting gears and deciding he’d rather be in the state Senate than the U.S. House of Representatives. Is there more to this than meets the eye? Clearly, before I add “Ball’s withdrawal” to my abandoned list of things to be thankful for, I need to find out more about the other Republican congressional candidate mentioned in news stories, whose name I must sheepishly admit I don’t even know.

Should I take the “I really can’t make up my mind about which approach I should take, so I’ll just list all of these ideas as a series of questions posed to no one in particular while cleverly managing to actually comment on each one without ever committing to any of them” approach?

Well, no. That would be plain stupid.