A person is what they do

In the Des Moines Register, I noticed a typical example of modern political mania.

A certain presidential candidate, who shall remain nameless, has moved to Des Moines until at least, ostensibly, the Iowa Caucuses occur in the first week of January. The article reported the fact that this man enrolled his six year old daughter in one of city's elementary schools.

That's fine and well, we want our kids to be in school. It makes sense for him to relocate to Iowa temporarily because Iowa is where all the action's at right now, and for the next two months. But couldn't this man, who is a U.S. Congressman, have left his family where they were at and just made a point of calling home often?

My carpentry instructor was the former Assistant Director of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners until the union decided they no longer needed an Assistant Director. He found the position at the North Iowa Area Community College listed on the Internet (this was, mind you, 1996 when well below fifty percent of the American population had ever logged on) and moved to Mason City, living in a ten dollar room at the YMCA during the summer while he put in 16 and 18 hour days reconditioning the long vacant shop and putting together a useable curriculum for the first year the course would be offered in many years. Through the summer, he called home almost daily. In the fall, when the Building Trades program was up and running, he bought a house here and moved his wife and kids from Virginia to here. Last I knew, he's still in Mason City, running the carpentry program out at NIACC.

I feel kind of bad for the little girl in this situation. If they were moving to Des Moines for the long haul like my carpentry instructor did, maybe this wouldn't have been so bad. I've got a feeling, though, our legislator will be moving back to the Washington DC area after his campaign fails to survive the caucuses. His daughter will have just started to make new friends, only to have to leave them behind. I've met relatively few people who moved all over as kids who were truly happy in life. My mother moved about every year when she was growing up, and I can see where it definitely affected her. A lot of the so-called 'military brats' who never stayed in one place for more than a couple of years seem to have many of the same afflictions a lack of stability in one's formative years can cause.

This is so typical of how dependants are forced to sacrifice for people's ambitious pursuits, especially political endeavors. I'm sure politicians of all party affiliations can be cited for this.

Curious as to who it is? I'm sure you might be. If you Google it creatively or search the Des Moines register website for recent articles about candidates moving to town and enrolling their kids in school, you'll probably find it. I didn't tell you who it is because I don't feel it serves any real purpose. It's the behavior that's being commented on, and I think it's safe to say this guy is far from being the only guilty party. Besides, he doesn't have a chance anyway. A big cat is a predator and a carnivore, but seldom a scavenger. I'm sure you'll agree it'd be unbecoming of this TiGor to tear into someone who's already down! Wouldn't be very sporting, would it?

After all, actions speak louder than words!

Tim Gordon