Palmer Fun!
April 22 & 23
“Have you seen what we do to those we elect? Have you seen what we’ve done to families and friends near those people? ...We treat our elected officials like fodder for a rumor mill.”
Contributed by Josh Fryfogle I’ve gotten the question, “Are you gonna run for an office?” I mean, I am campaigning, so I get it. “You could end up in a real position someday!”
Contributed by Lorali Simon, Mary Lou Coddington, and Jack Burnett. Palmer has become a gathering place, a destination, a desired location. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with our beautiful scenery. After all, Pioneer Peak is probably the second most recognizable mountain in Alaska. Palmer’s sense of community is encapsulated in our quaint, kind, Norman Rockwell-esque vibe of a true American small town downtown. To me, our sense of community really means Who Let the Girls Out! This annual event is sponsored and hosted every year by a growing group of Palmer-ites (Palmer-ainians?) individuals and businesses. We put on WLTGO so that people have a reason to see each other: to mingle, to play, to laugh, to hug, to shop, to eat, and to drink. Shake off the cabin fever! Come to Palmer on April 22-23!
Well, I am flattered, but, uh… Have you seen what we do to those we elect? Have you seen what we’ve done to families and friends near those people? We treat our elected officials like fodder for a rumor mill. These people work for us! We are the worst bosses of all time, joining in on the melee. If it weren’t for our short attention spans and general apathy, it would be unbearably cruel to them. It’s like the modern day Roman Colosseum… of the Mind! We display their lives, show their weaknesses, curse them, blame them for failure - it’s a bloodbath. Consider the contempt that might create amongst the elect towards the People - our public servants towards the public. Some unsuspecting but presumably sincere citizen takes on the task of public service, a triumphant winner of an election, cheered along by willing supporters. Then, everything changes.
Being community-minded isn’t always represented by volunteering for a local non-profit, although we all need to do that too. Sometimes community is as simple as meeting up with old friends, and making new ones, to have a beer and a cheeseburger.
We send them off in fanfare, but should they fail, even in their private lives, we publicly shame them!
Throw in a little shopping with downtown merchants (most of whom are small business owners struggling through another winter).
But we want a hero! Someone to slay the dragons! Someone to lead us into battle!
Most of all, community is loving, accepting, and inviting. Please join us for Who Let the Girls Out on April 22-23.
“What makes Palmer such a special place? I believe it is our sense of community.”
Nope, not a job I want. We, the Employers, need to do a better job at this self-governance thing.
A symbol of the best of us, a savior to the rest of us! I imagine the Roman Gladiators must have felt a similar relationship with the people of their time. They were surely treated as gods among men. They probably were indulged in every vice and pleasure, made to feel honored wherever they went, relieved of worldly worries - it must have been great! Until it was time to be killed in public. Imagine the feelings they felt, knowing that the same adoring public would cheer at their death. We see the same mentality among ancient South American cultures, where we’ve learned that they practiced human sacrifice. The ‘victims’ were seen as giving their lives for the community. Public service, if you will. Now we are not nearly as cruel these days. We’ve toned it down a bit. We don’t kill our heroes to please the gods anymore. We are more civilized, and modern. We just disgrace them publicly, dragging their entire families
down from the pedestals we placed them on. And their sacrifice is never sufficient, either. We have these public pedestals, and there will always be more who are willing to be placed there, thinking it will be different for them. And maybe it will. I mean, we’re modern, and sophisticated, right? We do our bloodletting in other ways, while our leaders play a role that the human psyche is all too comfortable with. It’s human nature that we want our saviors to succeed or die trying. Those trusted few, who we send to battle, to return triumphant or not at all. Of course this flies in the face of a supposedly self-governed People. This is completely inconsistent with the ideas and ideals that shaped our society. We have simply reverted to our base instincts. And while we are distracted with the spectacle of it all, our real concerns and interests are not served. Not at all. Instead, we get dramatic distractions - bread and circuses. This campaign - the Vote Local campaign - is a real political campaign. But I hope it’s not like anything you are used to. My role as candidate is my artistic expression, not to insult those who we elect, but to bring attention to the fact that our nation, our country, was supposed to be different. We were supposed to rise above the brutality of the past. We were supposed to realize mankind’s higher functions. Instead, we have reverted to the base barbarism we arrogantly forget is our shared history. My role as ‘candidate’ in this campaign is purely symbolic, not only of our psychological need for a hero, but of the futility of the same. I am not condemning the People. I am one of you. Your weakness is mine, too. That’s the point of my ‘candidate’ persona. What does it even mean, in a free society, to be elected? Does it mean expanded power or restricted? Does it mean public servant, or public master? And if we have it backwards, how do we move forward? Again, I truly believe it is as simple as where you spend your money. That’s your vote, and it counts. The basis of this nation’s system of government was not to consolidate power, but the opposite. The whole point of having different ‘States’, as referenced in the United ‘States’ of America, was that the same rule of law for everyone was too blunt, with the brunt bore by the individual. An unbearable burden, the People deserved liberty, and the best way to do that was to diversify the power structure - localizing the power. But more than that, this liberty was further ensured through the acknowledgement of the rights of the individual, given by a Creator. This idea that each individual had certain inalienable rights (or responsibilities) was revolutionary. The American Dream was, and always will be, the entrepreneur who can determine their own future! Yet we cast it aside so