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Why I Blog About Issues and Politics

Posted by Scott Bannon

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For those who don’t know me personally and may read this blog or posting I wanted to offer a little insight into why I blog about politics and issues that I believe are important.

This may be insightful for some of you who do know me as well, as I know a few think I keep this blog out of some self-destructive character trait.

That’s because this blog does not help me professionally by any means, in-fact it tends to turn some people away from doing business with me–hence the self-destructive theory some of my friends have.

But I accept that politics and business rarely mix well, and I do the best job I can to keep the two separate for myself by not allowing either my passions nor my professional needs to intrude upon or block each other for myself. But, if others take offense to my positions and decide not to work with me for them I accept that as their right.

Still, over the years I’ve found that running this blog has never once led to additional business for me, but has caused me to lose some gigs–so there is an unbalanced nature to this beast and it makes sense that friends might view my determination to keep blogging here about these topics as self-destructive because of it.

It’s The Passion, Plain and Simple

The bottom line is that I’m just passionate about certain issues, and I’m passionate about seeing better tomorrows than yesterdays. And that takes the work and commitment of people who care–and my commitment is such that I’m willing to risk a few clients or contracts along the way for myself.

There’s nothing noble or unselfish about that though, in-fact to the contrary my deep convictions really stem from a fairly selfish and vindictive place.

See, I grew up living in rental apartments in city neighborhoods, but I shouldn’t have. I should have grown up on a small family farm with acres of corn, cattle and horses on the outskirts of town.

That’s where my family on my Mother’s side had settled and built their life after coming to America in the early 1900′s; along with a dozen other families from the same ‘Old Country’ region.

It was a quite community of farm folk. A dozen family farms, and as each new generation of children within the families grew to adulthood land on each of the farms was partitioned off… so what started as 12 mid-sized family farms had become dozens of small family farms over the years, but all were still connected to those original dozen families. Talk about a close-knit community.

Then just a couple years before I was born the local government came along and stripped everyone of these families of their homes and land under “Eminent Domain” for infrastructure improvements. They wanted to build a connector to the Interstate a few miles away and needed the land.

This image shows the area that was family farms and the proposed highway connector:

Now, I understand the need for progress, and absolutely agree that there are times when people have to be moved out of the way. But those people lose more than a home and the time spent moving when this is done, they lose traditions, memories and often their livelihoods as was the case for all the family farmers in this instance…so I believe these decisions–though necessary at times–need to be weighed and made very carefully.

So, lets take a look at the highway connector that was built in this instance:

Yep, 40 yards of concrete that leads to nowhere and has never been traveled by anyone.

The project was never completed, and I’ve been told it was never meant to be finished. That the whole thing was done to spend money from the budget just to justify the size of the budget and  prevent it from being reduced in the following fiscal year. I can’t confirm this, but I can confirm that dozens of families were stripped of their homes and livelihoods for 40 yards of useless concrete to be poured.

I can also confirm that folks who were once proud, self-sustaining, able to make livings off of the land, owned cattle and horses, never made waves and generation after generation served their country became depressed, poor,  often alcoholic night watchmen, fry cooks and mean-spirited factory hands…for 40 yards of useless concrete.

You see, it’s not that I didn’t get to grow up on the family farm, playing with the animals and riding the horses that bothers me.

It’s that I didn’t get to grow up knowing the proud, self-sufficient and happy people of my family, but rather I got the depressed and disappointed people they had become…for 40 yards of useless concrete.

And that’s why I blog about issues and politics, even when it clearly has a negative impact on my professional life at times.

Again, I’m not anti-progress and I would feel 100% differently if there were a highway connector running through that land (it would make my travels easier after all). But I believe someone has to point out…no, shout out when they see the people who are supposed to be serving us doing things that are wrong or stupid. If for no other reason than to just spread a little shame around on those who abuse their offices and authority at our expense.

Care to join me? Anyone can start a blog like this in minutes and for just $3 or $4 per month and make their opinions known, their voices heard and bring their elected leaders into the spotlight for the good and bad they do. I encourage you to be active, be persistent and not be sheep.

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