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Nick Jimenez
Nick
Jimenez, Caller-Times editor, writes a weekly editorial column Sundays. He can
be reached at 361-886-3787 or
jimenezn@caller.com.
Sunday, November 26, 2000
Battleground state is right
If words were bombs, Florida would be a wasteland by now. The heavy artillery of rhetoric has been fired in salvo after salvo with each escalation of the presidential drama. Our political house may be able to withstand just about anything - and if it can absorb a presidential impeachment and an Electoral College crisis back to back, then we've seen it all - but our social comity may not be able to.
The words had already been ricochetting since Election Night. The closeness of the race and the stakes in the balance ratcheted up the caliber of the verbal firearms. Intimations of political skullduggery were being made as Wednesday morning, Nov. 8, dawned without a winner.
When Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris ruled that she would certify the winner on the basis of election returns already in hand without waiting for manual recounts, the firestorm intensified and she was the main target. What had been political became personal.
Harris's cosmetic makeup (she lays it on thick), her wealth (she's got a lot of it and, her real crime, she inherited it) were subjects of discussion. Democrats hinted that her connections to the Bush campaign made her a patsy. Why else would a Floridian head off to the snows of New England when sensible Northeasterners were heading south to the beaches? The carpet bombing began after the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the manual recounts could continue and the results were ordered to be included in Florida's election totals. Republicans found it quite easy to say that the election was being stolen.
How can you steal something that is not yours yet?
Political affiliation has become a point of suspicion. Is there any American who has been following this soap opera who doesn't know the political labels of every participant? We know that the Florida Supreme Court justices have all been appointed by Democratic governors. (Republicans conveniently omit that those governors picked the nominees already screened by panels of citizens who make a selection strictly on the merits.) We know that Florida's attorney general is a Democrat. We know that Republicans dominate the Florida Legislature. We know that the governor is a Republican and George W. Bush's brother. We know that the canvassing boards in the three critical counties lean Democratic. And we know that Republican presidents have appointed most of the U.S. Supreme Court justices, who now have gotten into the fray.
In short, each side has left no allowance for the possibility that someone somewhere will make a decision that will simply be in the country's best interest, regardless of political affiliation.
How do we climb down from this? Words have meaning and repercussions, even when they are spoken in the heat of the moment. However this drama plays out, somebody will lose and somebody will win, and the participants will have to live with the words that have been spoken and bear the consequences.
The situation is the same in our own lives. How many marriages have been lost because of hurtful words that were made in the heat of anger or disappointment? How many years of friendships have been wiped away by the unkind remark or the thoughtless word?
We can only guess at how many husbands and wives have laid side by side in the dark waiting for the other to utter the words of remorse, with the words, "I'm sorry" stuck in their own throats.
Husbands and wives have differences every day. So do friends. So do buyers and sellers, landlords and renters, employers and workers. These disagreements often are not easily settled; sometimes there is no resolution. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose. But only we can give away our own civility.
On Thanksgiving, Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, telephoned Dick Cheney, his Republican counterpart who suffered a heart attack, to voice his concern. It was a small gesture, and maybe it was even pro forma. But I savored this small gesture of courtesy. I've got a feeling there won't be many of them.
(Nick Jimenez can be reached at 886-3787 or by e-mail at jimenezn@ caller.com.)
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