Digi-Scene

Time for my haircut this weekend. Send prayers...

He now prefers to be referred to as "Your Royal Highness". I've asked the new First Lady of Hyrum to use the royal sceptor in a way that it was not originally intended to be used...

Hearty congratulations go out to my Dad who was elected Mayor of Hyrum, Utah yesterday. He soundly defeated his opponent Gary Clawson with a final vote tally of 727 to 513.

Personally, I attribute Dad's victory to the fact that he recognizes that Hyrum, while not exactly a cosmopolitan place, has changed over the years. This town now has a fairly sizable ethnic population and more and more non-Mormons live there and need to have their voices heard in city government. His opponent on more than one occasion, used his leadership status in the Mormon church as some kind of endorsement that he was the man to be mayor. Dad stuck to the issues of running a city and left religion out of it.

I remember the time when he was on the city council and a new pizza parlor opened up in town and wanted a license to sell beer. Well, all of the good Mormons on the city council (who of course don't drink alcohol) were opposed to granting the license. Even though Dad was a bishop at the time, he voted to grant the license. His reasoning? Not everyone is a Mormon, and they should have the right to have a beer with their pizza if they want it. If you don't want a beer with your pizza, DON'T ORDER ONE. You go Dad!

Even though I love my Dad and respect and admire him greatly, in my opinion he really is going to make a good mayor who will serve ALL of the citizens of Hyrum. That's what representative government is all about.

I watched at least part of the faux live debate that was part of the West Wing episode on Monday night. I was impressed and depressed at the same time.

I was impressed with the quality of the writing for the debate segment and equally if not more impressed by the skills of the actors Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda. Because I was able to forget about the delivery and concentrate on the message, I actually HEARD what these fake politicians positions were on some real issues. These few minutes of lively interchange had a bigger impact on helping clarify my own views than the hundreds of TV ads I've seen by Arnold Schwarzenegger over the last 2 months.

The reason I'm depressed is because I will never see a live debate like this between actual candidates for President of the United States. Does anybody remember what Richard Nixon said in the Kennedy debate, or is the only thing that is remembered is his sweaty upper lip?

I'm not sure what the answer is. Here in California we've tried electing actors as politicians and we've all seen how well that has worked. San Diego as a city is in a hell of a mess, and we've got the opportunity to try to get new people in place to try to correct it. I'm glad there are people who are willing to at least try.

I couldn't avoid all of the political ads on TV, but I tried not to let them influence what I thought of the initiatives. I tried to find objective information as well as informed position statements both for and against and then I made up my own mind. That's what a democracy is all about. I take my responsibility as a citizen seriously, especially as I've seen what other people in the world will go through just to be able to vote.

I voted today. Did you?