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I was walking around the neighborhood the other day and noticed the political signs in folks’ yards. The red signs promoted Republicans, and the blue signs touted Democrats. This started me thinking about some political questions I had no answers to and was too lazy to look up.
How did those colors come to be associated with their respective parties? More than that, are the colors specific colors developed just for each party? You know, like Republican red and Democratic blue, or something like that.
If they were specific shades for each party, then the possibility arises that they are trademarked or copyrighted somehow, making the colors the exclusive property of the parties.
If the colors aren’t protected legally somehow, then I wonder, could a Democrat have signs printed in red to confuse or deceive voters? I am assuming, of course, that in this part of the country a Republican would be unlikely to have a blue sign printed to fool Democrats.
All these questions began to lead me to other questions.
One thing I thought about was that I have crossed the border to the south, traveled to places like the Bahamas and Belize and even spent almost a month traveling in India and Nepal. I even have an autographed copy of a book by the then chief of police of New Delhi, in whose house I was privileged to sit and share a cup of tea.
And when I was in high school, I studied three foreign languages, Spanish, French and German, though I confess I am no longer fluent in any of them.
Does that give me sufficient foreign policy experience to run for a high office?
And another thing. Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was a pastor for several years. Besides the usual duties of preaching and visiting, I was expected to help plan for ministry, be part of the local ministerial alliance so I could work on important community issues with other pastors, and be part of a local service club. In one community I served on the organizing committee of a nonprofit day care center.
Do these experiences make me a community organizer? Would that also qualify me for elected service?
And another thing.
Years ago, my family decided to rid ourselves of most of our debt. We owe for our house, to be sure, but we have a conventional mortgage, and put down 20 percent when we bought it – we wanted to do more, but that’s all our lender would take. We have a couple of car loans, but the monthly amounts for both run less than what many people pay for one car, and if we needed to, we have enough savings to pay them both off. We only have one credit card and rarely carry much of a balance.
And most of the time my total monthly income is greater than my outflow.
So would that qualify me as some sort of financial adviser, or am I disqualified because I’ve never received a multimillion dollar pay off after the company I ran went belly up?
Now, before any of my 14 or so readers decides to try to draft me, know that at least one former co-worker would be more than willing to tell anyone who asked that I’ve said things that won’t fly in a lot of conservative circles, and other associates would tell you that I’ve said things the other side wouldn’t appreciate. Does that make me a moderate?
And still others might be forced to tell about certain actions in my life that somebody out there is bound to find offensive at worst and hypocritical at best.
What would that make me? Human?
Michael O’Connor can be reached at editor@trcle.com
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