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Wednesday, June 3, 2009
A Man of Few Words
Posted By Tom Barberi on June 3, 2009, 3:31 PM
Politics seems to be a lot like basketball. The season never ends and
the games just go on and on. I bring this up because I went to
Granato's yesterday to see my good friend Sam Granato announce his
intention to enter the race for U.S. Senate.
Sam is a man who is a friend to everyone he has ever met and to hear him today gave me hope for the future of politics in Utah. I've been pretty cynical about politics and politicians over the years. That is generally speaking but I have known many who are, or have been wonderful public servants and have done many good things in their time in office.
Sam is a man of few words so when he speaks people listen and when others speak he listens. Today's announcement was typical of Sam. His speech was short and to the point. He asks questions that all of us would love to have answers to. "Why has our public debate on the critical issues facing our nation degenerated into buzz words designed to inflame, incite and frighten us when we need our courage the most? Why is every word spoken by public officials examined, re-examined, categorized and denigrated by radio and television talk show hosts in search of an audience? Why does it take a budget the size of a third world country to run for public office? And why is the movement for campaign finance reform that the public so clearly wants not being acknowledged? Why do political hopefuls think the only way to win public approval is by blaming and trashing their opponent? What happened to the ability to respectfully disagree?"
We can only hope that people of all political persuasions will one day stop thinking in terms of "us vs. them" when in reality it is only us. We are all in this together so lets try and figure out how to make it work for......all of us.
Sam is a man who is a friend to everyone he has ever met and to hear him today gave me hope for the future of politics in Utah. I've been pretty cynical about politics and politicians over the years. That is generally speaking but I have known many who are, or have been wonderful public servants and have done many good things in their time in office.
Sam is a man of few words so when he speaks people listen and when others speak he listens. Today's announcement was typical of Sam. His speech was short and to the point. He asks questions that all of us would love to have answers to. "Why has our public debate on the critical issues facing our nation degenerated into buzz words designed to inflame, incite and frighten us when we need our courage the most? Why is every word spoken by public officials examined, re-examined, categorized and denigrated by radio and television talk show hosts in search of an audience? Why does it take a budget the size of a third world country to run for public office? And why is the movement for campaign finance reform that the public so clearly wants not being acknowledged? Why do political hopefuls think the only way to win public approval is by blaming and trashing their opponent? What happened to the ability to respectfully disagree?"
We can only hope that people of all political persuasions will one day stop thinking in terms of "us vs. them" when in reality it is only us. We are all in this together so lets try and figure out how to make it work for......all of us.
More by Tom Barberi
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"It's A Dog Eat Cat World"
- Jan 8, 2010
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It's official....THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON!
- Jan 7, 2010
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GOD Speaks Tuber
- Jan 6, 2010
- More »
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