Two sides…
When I was a kid there was a school a block from our house. I didn’t attend that school, it was a religious school. But at the end of the school day, those kids would leave, and we would come home and the neighborhood kids would gather at the St. John’s school playground. It wasn’t big. We could choose from a three person merry-go-round, a tall metal slide, monkey bars that weren’t much shorter, a few swings, or a long wooden teeter-totter.
Now, some of you may never have seen a teeter-totter before, or if you have it’s one that has all sorts of safety features. Nope, this one wasn’t like that. This one was old weathered wood with a simple fulcrum mechanism in the middle to keep it in place. There were simple metal handles on each end, they looked like staples that didn’t make it all the way into the wood. There may have been plastic on the handles at one point. There may have been bumpers to make it land softly. There may have been paint on it when it was installed; but by the time I was playing on it we had to wear jeans so we were less likely to get splinters.
So, why would we play on this thing? Because it was fun! You would settle on one end of it and your friend — who was probably in your grade at school and about your size, would get on the other side and you would push yourself up into the sky, then they would push themselves up into the sky and you would each feel like you were flying for a few moments at the peak.
On good days, I could do that for what seemed like hours.
Then there were the days when the neighborhood kids were busy and all I had was my brother. He was a couple years younger than me, and was afraid of a lot of things. Looking back, he probably wasn’t actually afraid of heights, he was probably afraid of me. Because he knew that when we went on that teeter-totter, I would eventually get bored and frustrated. His body didn’t have enough weight to give me the feeling of flying. I would always come back down before I reached the peak. I would use my legs more, and not get any reward. So, what do big sisters do when they are bored? They pick on their little brothers.
He probably had fun in the beginning. He got to fly for as long as I would play fair.
But then, eventually, I would let my body weight take over and I would let gravity pull me to the ground and not use my legs to raise myself. He was caught at the top. As I’ve mentioned, this was a long, tall, teeter-totter. He was not able to get himself down safely. He could jump, but he would probably get hurt. He was at my mercy.
When I see what is happening in politics today I remember those days.
Our government has turned into (or perhaps has always been) an old fashioned teeter-totter the political parties are given to ride: out of date, dangerous, giving many who use it splinters and a fear of heights. It doesn’t matter which party is in power…there is never a never a true balance. There always seems to be a bully, not because the elected are bad at heart…but because frustration with the situation causes blame to be placed. And who is easier to blame than those on the other end of the seesaw.
My brother almost always came home crying on days we were alone and I talked him into using the teeter-totter.
My mother was famous for saying, “Watch out. One day your brother is going to be bigger than you! Then you’ll regret treating him this way.” I thought to myself, “Fine, I’ll know not to go on with him then.” But that can’t be the answer with our government. One party is not just going to walk away…there’s too much to lose.
The answer is to play on a different piece of equipment.
Get Lanica Shannon’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
When we played on the merry-go-round we had an equal buy-in and we got equal rewards. And, when one of us wanted to get off, we just stepped off. There was a three-person merry-go-round at the school playground, and I liked it because we could go fast. But, my favorite merry-go-round was the one down by the lake, McChaill Park. We had to walk a long way, but it was worth it!
This merry-go-round was huge. We could fit twenty kids or more one it. And, we would all have fun. Some stayed in the middle and just spun while others did the running. Some liked to stand on the outside and push while the metal bars spun past them, trying to get the rhythm right to make it go faster. I liked to get a good grasp, push with all my might as I got a running start and then jump on the very edge of the spinning machine and let myself lie flat, held in by the many metal bars along the outside — again, I felt like I was flying.
I could do that for what seemed like hours.
As with many things, more friends make for more fun. Or, many hands make lighter work. Either way, my answer to making the government work better — and work for more people — is to add more voices. We need to get away from the two-party gridlock and open the conversation to more voices with more ideas and different priorities.
I believe that a multi-party system is necessary to keep the United States of America a world power. I believe that every major issue should have a party to work towards it’s goals. Yes, there would be both a pro-life and pro-choice party. There would be an green energy party and a oil drilling party. What about a farming party and a labor party. A gun rights party and a party of restrictions. Yes, there would be chaos…but there would also be multiple paths forward for any given issue.
For this to work, we need Ranked Choice Voting. I imagine a system where I could go to vote and pick my issues ala carte. I could put votes in for several issues…and be content with at least part of my important issues likely rising to the top.
Give the tobacco lobby it’s own party.
Let’s give the oil industry it’s own party.
Let’s give every divisive ‘issue’ it’s own party and see how the vote turns out if we are not forced to tie our views for 25 or more issues in one person. What if a voter is both pro-gun and pro-choice? What if a citizen wants socializes healthcare, but closed borders?
Right now, we often have to hold our noses and vote for the ‘lesser of two evils’.
WHY?
I want a system were I can vote for the person I want to vote for.
Imagine that.
