I myself am not acquainted with any ordinary Americans. I know more than a few extraordinary Americans, some of them living right around here: people who work at volunteering as if it were a job, people who name the library as a beneficiary in their wills, and people who go out of their ways to help others in the most amazing and humbling ways and then act as if it were nothing — including the bona fide heroes among us who risk their lives on a regular basis in order to keep the rest of us safe. Of course I also know folks who don’t or can’t do these kinds of things (or not right now, anyway), but I often also know astonishing stories about things they’ve done or experienced in their lifetimes.
So who are the politicians talking about when they refer to “ordinary Americans?” Not themselves; that seems clear. I can’t help suspecting that they’re talking about “the little people” — what a semi-celebrity from my days in publishing once called, disdainfully, “those people we fly over.”
What’s interesting is how much these politicians know, or think they know, about what we run-of-the-mill groundlings want or need. They have anointed themselves as veritable experts on our tastes and preferences. I hear it over and over, in sonorous tones: “The American people don’t want their health care messed with.” “Americans are tired of the war in Afghanistan.” “What Americans want now is …“ (Please choose from the following options: universal health coverage, tea parties, financial regulation, no financial regulation, no new taxes, no budget deficit, a solution for climate change, a declaration that there is no climate change.)
These diagnoses are usually supported by polls or surveys, and I’m wondering who responds to them. Have you ever been polled? If the answer is yes, you are probably either retired or on the mailing list of a political party or interest group. Working adults aren’t very available to pollsters, because even when they’re at home, they’re too busy (and perhaps cautious) to talk to some stranger about their politics or their hopes and dreams for their country. As for surveys, they’re almost always slanted, with questions of the are-you-still-beating-your-wife variety. An example I saw recently was: “Do you favor a government takeover of health care?” (Duh — nobody favors a government takeover of anything.)
For what it’s worth, though, we do a reliable national survey every few years that tells us what the American people want. It’s called an election.
Susan Harper is the former director of the Commerce Public Library. She lives in Commerce.
BUT, there are SO, SO, ne'....TOO MANY people who live in America who are more than happy to leave it all to someone else.
There are too many people who have jobs that they ended up being "grandfathered-into", who just sit on their butts and do nothing to help their employers, their co-workers, or their communities. And they believe, somehow, that they participate! It's so ridiculous that it makes me want to just SMACK them! (But, I wouldn't, because I DO try to contribute, and it would not do anyone any favor for me to do that....)
If you don't want to be considered "an average American", then DO SOMETHING to distinguish yourself, for goodness' sake!!! Stop sittin' on your butt and ignoring the phone when it rings, stop ignoring requests for help from your co-workers, stop obsessing over any slight you feel done to you over the quality of your work when the QUANTITY of your work is sorely lacking!!!!!
GET UP! DO SOMETHING, if all you do is participate, the least you could do is support your employer and co-workers!!!! Where are you gonna be when they get tired of carrying you??? WHY should politicians care about you when you can't even contribute to your own livelihood?????
Wake up! Get a grip! And then, maybe, you won't be treated as - or referred to - as an "average American".
Those of us who truly do contribute to society, (largely through our contribution to our employers who materially and quantitatively DO add to the betterment of our world, in whatever way), don't feel average, and we don't accept that we are average. Because we are not.
Take a good look at yourself and your efforts, day-to-day, to contribute to the improvement of our world....inch-by-inch, moment-by-moment, and deed-by-deed.
Then, if you can sleep at night, you're either alright, or you're delusional. It takes introspection and hard core honesty to figure out which you are.
So, sleep well, or dream on.