ONE ON ONE

Friday night a friend of mine and I went to see the Broadway play "Frost Nixon." It was fantastic, really a great play. It was about the first interview Richard Nixon had after stepping down as President of the United States because of the Watergate scandal. They agreed to do the interview with a soft talk-show host believing they were much smarter than him so they would come out looking great. At the same time the interviewer is trying to coax Nixon into admitting his part in Watergate.

I wasn't born yet when Watergate took place so I wasn't aware of this interview that actually took place (it's being made into a movie as well). The fact that I didn't know the facts in this case made the play that much more interesting. Anyhow, it was great - but what I wanted to post about was something that the play touched on.

Towards the end of the play, Nixon calls up the interviewer before they tape the final few hours of the show and basically compares the interview to a bull fight. One person will win. One will lose. Lets both give it our best shot and may the best man win type of speech. Nixon looked at the interview in the same way he saw politics - a dual. Now, I can admire that to a degree. I admire the strength and courage that type of outlook contains...especially for someone who apparently lived their entire life that way. But some things in life aren't supposed to be treated as a dual. Politics is supposed to be about vision, leadership and welfare of society. To achieve those goals you can't look upon every move as a fight. You need to compromise and have an open-mind along with an understanding of culture and values. Somewhere along the line politics became a scorecard. It's less about the welfare of society and more about how many points you can score on you opponent. Someone play offense and someone plays defense. That's fine for a basketball court but not for people being paid a lot of money to represent a large community of individuals. You are supposed to be their voice...NOT their champion or hero. A voice to express, and a hand to build. Nothing more and nothing less.

I haven't spoken about politics on this blog but I'm fascinated by it. I'm fascinated by the power it has to change things. And I'm fascinated by the power it has to corrupt. Unfortunately I believe we are at a time where the power to corrupt has overtaken the desire to change. Fortunately I live in a country where, if the people get angry enough, they can actually fix it. That's what keeps me from despair.

Okay, no more politics for a while after this. I'll get back to some more philosophical posts. Stay tuned...