I'd Like To Believe...

...that if I was elected to public office, my actions would always reflect the beliefs I expressed when getting elected.

I Am What I Do
Anyone that has ever faced the possibility of losing a job that they liked will probably express a similar feeling to what I've felt in the past. Here's what I mean.

When I like a job, I put a lot of myself into it. After doing that for a while, I often start confusing who I am, with what I do. Or minimally, I start to gain much of my self-esteem from the approval I get from my work.

When faced with losing such a job (which I have faced in the past), it turns into more of a crisis of self-identification and trying to redefine who I am. Add to that the potential financial crisis that my occur, and the fear of the unknown, and all the other factors around potential (or actual) job loss, and this kind of event in one's life can be significantly traumatic.

All that being said, I would hope that when public officials got into office, they would be able to divorce themselves of the identification of themselves as "an important government figure," to do their jobs with a high level of integrity and commitment to their constituents...without worrying about keeping their job, or the power and money that might go with it.

I know it's a lot to ask, but I can't see how our government will ever succeed in the long run, when self-interest is more important than the public interest.

I take the example of the recent resignation of the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, R. James Nicholson.

The state of affairs for our veterans is deplorable. We treat them worse than the detainees at Guantanamo Bay in some cases. I ask, why didn't this appointed Secretary stand up and say something about it? Why didn't he keep making a pest of himself until the right thing was done about it, or he was fired?

I can only believe that as he leaves the department of Veteran Affairs in a complete shambles, he can't have any shred of accomplishment or pride in having done nothing while the area for which he was responsible got worse and worse. Wouldn't it have been better if he had at least tried?

I'm going to start to ask my elected officials to do just that. With my leisure time, I have the ability to write personal letters to my senators, congressmen and local officials to stand up and do what we elected them to do. I can only hope others will start to do the same, and our officials will start to do their jobs...regardless of the consequences.

Current Knitting
I've done another few inches on the Aran sweater.



I thought you'd want to see it anyway. Mostly, I've been working on craft-show related items. In addition to starting four more scarves (which I'll show pictures of when they're done), I also made some crochet bowls, which I will felt, so that I can have some additional fiber-goods on my craft table to sell, other than just scarves.



The bowl in the front is already felted, to show you about what they'll look like when finished. These "bowls" aren't overly useful, but they use up leftover felt-able yarns, and folks seem to find them interesting. With an inexpensive price tag, I think I can get some sales that I might not be able to if I only have scarves.