Because Video Didn't Kill the Radio Star

If Andy had it his way, we would never turn off the radio in the cabin. I structure my Saturdays around listening to Car Talk and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, and I try to catch This American Life, The Splendid Table, and Marketplace Money as well. We don't have a t.v. (just Netflix) so we depend on both the local community radio station and NPR to supply our daily dose of news. Radio was an important component of my childhood and it remains important to me to this day.

The U.S. Congress has recently  introduced not one, not two, but three bills to cut federal funding for the country's public broadcasting services. These services reach out to approximately 170 million Americans every month.

Colorado Representative Doug Lamborn, one of the movers and shakers behind these bills, seems to view public broadcasting as archaic and has stated: The original purpose of federal funding for CPB in 1967 is no longer relevant. The intent of federally-funded public broadcasting was to make “telecommunications services available to all citizens of the United States.” Today, over 99 percent of Americans own a TV and over 95 percent have access to the Internet. In a world of 500-channel cable TV, streaming radio over the Internet, and cell phone Internet access, government-funded broadcasting is completely unnecessary.

As a resident of a rural area, about half of his argument above doesn't pertain to life around here. I can't stream radio over the internet. We don't have cell phone service. And somehow, having all my news come to via private news organizations, like, oh, I don't know, FOX, doesn't seem like the best idea. 

Remember that line from John Mayer's song "Waiting on the World to Change?" Because when they own the information, oh, they can bend it all they want.  

If we remove all venues for unbiased reporting, like NPR and local independent broadcasting services, that means all our information will come to us through a glass darkly. As a writer, I find the prospect of living in a world where objectivity is unnecessary and fact checking "a waste of time" down right terrifying. As educated citizens, we desire to know both sides of the story before we make up our minds and opinions. It  is our responsibility as free-thinkers to foster as many forums for thought as possible. We should have the opportunity to blog, and write letters to the editor, and pen radio commentaries to our heart's content.

If you feel radio is an important part of your daily life, I encourage you to join me in the 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting campaign.This is not plea for your personal monies (let's be honest, we heard enough of those pleas from public broadcasting) and the campaign promises to treat your personal information with care and integrity. This is your chance to stand up and be counted as a public broadcasting beneficiary. If you learned your alphabet from Sesame Street, if you tune into the local radio station for weather alerts, this is a campaign for you.

After all, public broadcasting has always been about making your voice heard.

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Movin' to Canada

 

No Kim and Lisa, don’t get excited. I am not, in actuality, moving to Canada. Instead, I’m invoking the time worn phrase muttered so frequently over the years in the days following an election that hasn't gone in your favor. You know, when you mutter under your breath “if things don’t shape up in this country, I’m moving to Canada.”

Not to turn this blog into a running commentary on my political beliefs, but let’s just say yesterday’s election was a disappointment. The likely recount of the Minnesota governor’s race likely  is a frustration. I don’t care which side of the political fence you sit on, or even if you sit on the fence, after the eight month long recount in Minnesota for the 2008 U.S. Senate seat, Minnesotans just aren't getting excited about recounts anymore. “How long is this going to take,” we all groan.

As an aside on the whole “let have a recount” mentality, Anne Lamott writes that the counterpart to faith is certainty. It makes me wonder: if we weren’t so certain that something terrible had happened during the voting process, if we had faith that things went all right the first go round, just what sort of state would this country be in? What would happen if we could remove just a teeny weeny bit the hysteria that seems to be dictating our actions as a nation?

Anyway, back to the whole Canada issue . . . .

I got to thinking . . . . Canada really isn’t that far off. In fact, the lake I worked on all summer is an international lake: the Canadian border runs smack dab down the middle of the lake. I’ve spent the last year pretty much in spitting distance from Canada. I mean, I could set up camp on the north side of the lake and just motor on down to the museum every morning next summer. It would be like nothing had changed at all . . . .

But isn’t that part of the whole problem?

If we keep calling for change but instead opt for the path of least resistance over and over again for ourselves, then we’re not really changing anything. “Watching our backs” doesn’t do anyone much good. Setting up camp in Canada might make me feel better about myself, but no one likes a quitter.

I don’t know what needs to happen to get the country “back on track.” I don’t know that anyone does. But I do know that getting up and fighting for what we believe to be true is the only way to actually change things. And I know that change can be slow and ugly and demand a lot of hard work. And I know what’s good change for one person is bad for another. We’re not all ever going to be on the same page. That’s just not what democracy is about. Democracy is about sticking around, about not only believing that things will get better, but working to make things better.  

So I guess that means moving to Canada is O-U-T.

Rep. Jim Oberstar

Last but not least, thank you Representative Oberstar so much for your 35 years of service in Congress. I literally don’t know a MN Eighth Congressional District without you and as we push off into these uncertain times, I can say one thing for certain: we’ll miss you.

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Crying Over A Lost Ballot

I’ve been voting since the Kerry/Bush days, which means I’ve voted in the past three elections, plus one special election as well as this year’s contest. Hmmm, that doesn’t sound quite as impressive as I might have liked. . . . The point is, I take voting seriously.

By the time I reached voting age, mail-in ballots had become standard practice. Over the last six years, I’ve grown accustomed to tracking down another registered MN voter to glance over my blank ballot and then sign the ballot’s envelope before mailing it off to the courthouse after I've voted. While I spend a fair amount pondering who to vote for, the actual voting has always been a pretty painless, no-brainer process.

So on Thursday evening, I decided the time had come to cast my vote. I’d heard enough of the 20+ debates with the three gubernatorial candidates to feel I'd reached an informed decision. I went to my desk to grab my ballot and black ink pen and I couldn’t find my ballot.

Frantic searching ensues.  

Two phone calls to various parental units later and I still hadn’t unearthed the ballot. Andy had gotten in on the search and he couldn’t find it either. Then the tears started.

They say not to cry over spilt milk, but they didn’t mention anything about lost ballots. Normally, I probably wouldn’t cry over a lost ballot. But the missing ballot was the culmination of a frustrating week spent running around, laboring over tasks in a 53 F degree stone building and losing plenty of other things beside the ballot. On Thursday night, the missing ballot was the last straw. The last thing I needed was to have to drive 55 miles into town on Tuesday to vote just because I’d lost my ballot.

Things often look better in the morning and on Friday morning I discovered my ballot hiding in the depths of my computer bag. I grabbed my black pen and filled in all the appropriate bubbles. Andy signed the envelope and my ballot went off with the mail.

Now, was that really worth crying about?

I’m inclined to think it was. While it’s great to live in a country where we can decide whether or not we’re going vote, I do feel that choosing not to vote is not a real great decision. Voting is an integral part of being a citizen of the United States. And after an election season as zoo-ey as this one has been, I felt it was important to cast my vote and do my part in “getting it over with.”

Do I care who you vote for this election season? Of course I do. But the choice that is most important every election is not the choice you’ll mark on the ballot, but the choice you’ll make to mark the ballot. No matter how long your “to-do” list is today, make sure voting’s at the top of that list.

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