SHARED STANDARDS LIFT AMERICAN GREATNESS BAR

 

 

In order to compete with Pew Research Center’s ‘fact tank’, nonpartisan, non-advocacy approach to public opinion, I ask strangers questions.

 

In a nonpartisan, non-advocacy approach I asked a fellow citizen in the sauna, an FCIS, if I could ask a few questions about shared standards. The old ‘question about asking questions’ technique.

 

He said yes. This was a guy in his thirties, except he was in the sauna before working out so he was probably older. Older guys warm up slower.

 

“Have you ever had a traffic ticket?” I asked.

 

He said yes.

 

“Did you go to court?” I asked.

 

He said yes.

 

“And the judge asked you how you pleaded and you said innocent, or guilty, or no contest?” I asked.

 

“Yes, a few times,” he laughed.

 

I sat down on the bottom bench for the next question.

 

“From beginning to end the judge called people up and said, “By Oregon State Law I can only reduce your fine by $$$$,” and we stop at the cashier window on the way out the door,” I said. “I call it a shared standard, one of the basics of our mobile, on the move, nation. Is that what you did too?”

 

“Pretty much just like that,” he said.

 

“And no one expected anything different?” I said.

 

“The judge did the same job in every case, but I don’t know about ‘shared standards,” he said.

 

I stood up and looked out the window and said, “You’ve flown in an airplane? That safety talk they do before every takeoff? The last time I flew it was on screens, but you get the idea. The shared standard is getting on the plane and taking off, then landing and walking away.”

 

“That’s the expectation,” he said.

 

“And everybody shares it. If they don’t, you hope they wouldn’t make it through check-in, right?” I said.

 

“I’ve had a few searches,” he said.

 

“TSA runs a fine toothed comb. Sometimes I get Pre-Check, sometimes not, but either way it’s a shared standard for boarding a commercial flight,” I said.

 

“Glad they do it,” he said.

 

I agreed. We dug into shared standards a few more minutes until the heat forced him out, then me. I think I lasted because I’d just spend a few days in an Arizona blast furnace.

 

As a blogger, a citizen blogger, a voting blogger, I look for shared standards where they hide. One place is the land use permit office in Mesa, AZ. They want it their way and that’s how you’ll do it. Or no permit. Shared standards.

 

Another is traffic court, while still more loosely enforced shared standards are neighborhood rules known as Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions. If rules in the ‘hood are too much of a burden, then find another gated community.

 

Shared standards nation wide may vary, but the overarching umbrella covering America is set. I reviewed those standards in the National Archive, passing by the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights. Some visitor were crying. I shed a tear with them, because of them. We felt the shared standards together.

 

It doesn’t take a trip to Washington, D.C to get to the American bottom line. All it takes is a trip to the polls, to the voting booth. In Oregon it means opening an envelope in the mail and sending it back filled out.

 

But who to vote for? Set your sights on candidates who relate to the same shared standards you live by. Hearing a foreign language, seeing a different skin tone, asking for a beer in a bar and getting it from someone in a low neckline dress with a five o’clock shadow a deep voice and breasts held in by a VS bra, are no reasons to call the police.

 

Normal citizens get to set their bar for shared standards by doing normal things within the laws we all agree to follow. I live up to the standards in public and private by sticking with names like Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions. Talk about a burden? Who in their lefty mind doesn’t like tagging them with more colorful names.

 

Calling the president Mr. Trump is setting the bar of civility, of decency. When you vote, choose someone who reflects your sense of decency and civility, not the candidate with the needy plea connected to more needy people who need more attention regardless of tone and optics.

 

When you see ’em, when hear ’em, you’ll know it’s them.

 

Pew’s turn.