the blue bus in Talk Radio

I picked up a sign at county democratic HQ (in favor of Issue 1, against gerrymandering, Ohioans vote yes :) They wanted me to take candidate signs too but I refused. We had a lengthy conversation, them talking more than me, but I told them I’m voting for democrats. I’m just not hyping them.

Although I’m pretty sure vote but no hype qualifies as “taking the bus,” I got the bus analogy from them: voting isn’t marriage, it’s transport, get on the bus that gets you closer to what you want. And this is pragmatism I can appreciate and an analogy I’ve used before. I just don’t think a response to me is the right application, as somebody who is complaining about the bus they are nonetheless still riding.

It probably seems unfair to put the bus metaphor under scrutiny it was never designed to hold, but I can’t help but think literally, in that it is very hard to build a life here taking the bus.

Personal economic sustainability without being able to drive or own a car is very unlikely. In a general sense, when it comes to public resources, people are literally dying waiting to get a little closer to getting their basic needs met and their basic dignity for human life recognized. They are hurting and dying waiting for the bus to get anywhere.

I’m not saying don’t try the bus right now, it might be going in circles, and the driver lies most of the time, but it does have wheels and gas. But if they can’t get somewhere real and/or we can’t build our own vehicle to get around them, we gotta get off this ride before we die in it.