Elected officials and public employees have official responsibilities and also have unofficial duties. These duties aren’t on paper but are sometimes as important as the items on the official job descriptions. For example, Hillary Clinton would have been and still will be a fine president; she knows presidential stuff as well as Bill Clinton, Barrack Obama and the second George Bush did on the day they were sworn into office.
But, there was something special about Obama becoming president; something related to healing. Also, my community needed to have someone who looks like them in office so he could once and for all tell them that a person who is like you isn’t going to give you everything. Obama said that from the first day of his campaign and people get it now.
Those unofficial duties therefore explaining the limited role of government to hardhead people who only listen to people from their circle. In my hometown, we recently had an issue with flooding. A city councilman was on the local T.V. news broadcast saying that the city government wasn’t the problem with certain flooding. Water wasn’t flowing properly because locals were tossing bottles and trash into ditches and that debris clogged the pipes. I love it; dude basically said, “The problem is you.” We need more of that.
While it might sound racial, I want more Black clean cut guys in lower grades teaching positions because some kids don’t see positive brothers during their development. Non-Black students need to see that also because they’re formulating their opinions of us on rap videos and the fools on the Maury Povich Show. If I had Oprah/Bill Gates type money, I would give a grant or supplement to Black male teachers in lower grades. Hey, two students at my black college told me that Senator Saxby Chambliss’ wife was one of the sweetest and most loving people in their lives. Seeing her at school was the high point of their day and a positive light in an otherwise tough childhood.
Hillary Clinton is going to be president and little girls can be proud of the fact that women make the world go around. If I had my choice, I would still like to see Republican Jon Huntsman in the White House one day because part of his unofficial duties would be being a conservative who isn’t angry and dismissive. He drives the far right crazies more crazy with his cool approach. I am uniquely qualified to say vote for the right person in the right situation because I am a moderate Democrat who has voted for both of Georgia’s current U.S. Senators a few times. I voted for them because they support the economic engines of this region: agriculture and the military.
Of course, it’s not cool for reasonable members of a group to remain quiet as other members of that group say ugly things about others. I wouldn’t be quiet if someone was talking about all White people being this or that when I know that isn’t true. That would be ugly by association. What about those rich kids who had “the help” as second mothers but who grow up to say the ugliness things about all of “those people.”
I tell you what, I am not voting for anyone who doesn’t have a comfort level and functioning relationship with people in every community. Coni Rice, Jon Huntsman, Colin Powell, Rep. Sanford Bishop and Rep, Jack Kingston come to mind as public servants who can dialog with anyone—disagree without being disagreeable. The most important unofficial duty might be the ability to reasonably explain public policy to those who disagree with you.
America is at it’s worst when supporters of a public official dare him or her to talk with the other side. People who don’t make much money and people who have had it rough (by their own creation) are still Americans. Any person, political parties or group that wants to suppress their voting are un-American to me. This whole blog post isn’t race-based because the last time I checked most of the people in my community have as much affection for the presidential service of Bill Clinton as for Barrack Obama. As quiet as it is kept, that southerner White dude knows more about these piney woods in Georgia than any president other than James Earl Carter.
With unofficial duties in mind, Michelle Nunn and Karen Handel get a certain amount of consideration for U.S. Senate because they have that lady logic working. Yes, the Georgia congressional delegation needs a woman’s touch and I would look seriously at a sista from the GOP running for the U.S. House. Sisters in my community are now and have always been relatively conservative and they know that our community has become too reliant on the government. It’s a shame that the Tea Party will force Handel to act hardcore to win their primary. Rep. Jack Kingston is in that senate primary and that cat will talk with anyone anywhere because that is part of his official duties.
Unofficial duties include telling it like it “tiz.” If you don’t know that that adage, you might not be ready to represent both sides of the tracks down here.
Project Logic Ga 