When The Right Turn is What's Left
After all the Support our Troops ribbons have been bought up; after all the coffee klatches filled with political debate have ended; after the day’s hammering of we say/they say has been endured; after all the rhetoric; it’s time to come home to one’s own reality.
I have a customer, let’s call him Jose Rodriguez. Jose might once been Mexican, Cuban or Philippine for all I know—now he is all American. He’s damn proud of his success in this country, so proud that he’s moved into a place called “Liberty Trails”.
On the left is a map of his neighborhood, or at least as much of it that Goggle Maps has so far. There are more streets, and none of them is named Kennedy or Roosevelt, if you get my drift. I’m actually impressed that someone knew that a Whig like Tyler was the same thing as a Republican. My guy has his bit of the housing bubble plunked down on Hoover.That would scare me.
Jose and his lovely wife have a couple of raggedy-ass little pooches and called us to give them an estimate for a fence. We talked over the options and about a year later the decision was made to go with low maintenance elegance. Spending a little extra Yankee dollar, the R’s ordered an ornamental aluminum fence, kind of like wrought iron but of a more modern, clean design.
Excellent choice. The order went in and the proper authorities were applied to, put it on the board.
Today Jose Rodriguez isn’t so happy. It turns out that the premium, durable and maintenance free option of aluminum fence is not allowed in his neighborhood. Fences must be cedar to maintain the hometown pseudo-colonial motif of this little Yankee Doodle Dandy enclave. Ornamental fences are for Italians and such and you know what communists they all are!
Turns out life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is a little more complicated than you might have thought, Jose. We must consider the property values, you see. We may talk a fine game about too much government but when it comes down to your money and my money—even on the corner of Reagan Boulevard and Hoover Trail—a little socialism can be just the ticket.
posted by sequoit @ 11:06 PM
1 Comments:
My point was principally that when you get right down to the nuts and bolts, the upper middle class is not so opposed to a collectively arrived upon and enforced solution that protects thier own interest against the rugged individual, and I thought this was a pristine little example. No doubt this builder was a flaming neocon and most of the people moving in there were aware of the statement being made and were approving. There are hundreds of other new developments to choose from within 15 miles.
It just never occured to anyone that the thing they insist they are fighting for is not what they really want in the end.
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