The Scouring of the Shire (and Other Cautions)

 For anyone who knows me, you'll know that I'm a tremendous Lord of the Rings nerd. Not only have I done the obvious - yearly re-watches of the films (extended editions, of course), reading the books, watching the Rings of Power - I've also done some of the more esoteric things. Learned Elvish, bought the replica of Anduril, the Flame of the West (Aragorn's sword, folks; keep up!), and even hang a flag of Gondor outside of my house. That part actually has a story which I'll digress a little to tell. A few years ago, I noticed that a neighbour up the street had put up a flag of Rohan. So obviously I had to respond in kind! I kept saying that one day I would light a lamp at the front of my house and see if they stopped by to offer help. Alas, to this day, I have seen no sign of Theoden, king. I must sit alone with my tomatoes (a deep cut - I'm nowhere near as bad as Denethor). 

Anyway...

What I wanted to talk about today is the little known last chapter of the Lord of the Rings books. If you've only watched the Jackson movies, then you're likely *completely* unfamiliar with this, but I think it has some things to talk about us about today. The last chapter of the book is called "The Scouring of the Shire", and deals with the hobbits return to their idyllic home. You know...the Shire is not unlike Hanover (cue my English teacher modality, introducing an extended metaphor in 3...2...)

 What Sam and Frodo and the rest return to is an aggressive takeover of the Shire that they've not returned to yet because they've been recovering with the Elves. The place is taken over by factories, militaristic, fascistic rule, leaders that are concerned with their own aggrandizement at the expense of freedom and beauty that used to mark the Shire. Were the hobbits like this before? No, of course not! The influence came from somewhere. Where did the influence come from? Well, we follow the money. See, there is this new figure in the shire; a character named "Sharkey" who has been influencing things by paying to spread his new regime of cruelty and lack of compassion. When Sharkey is finally unmasked...it's none other than the fallen wizard, Saruman. The one who had been in league with the worst that the Third Age had to offer was wreaking his revenge for a failure to completely obliterate the freedoms of all in the world, by destroying the freedoms of the hobbits. 

In the end it ends happily, or as happily as it can. Let's say Saruman and his assistant don't make it and leave it there. The Shire goes back to normal, and the things that were built by "Sharkey" are torn down and remade into the good, honest life the hobbits are used to. Sam gets to be mayor! Always knew that young man would do well for himself! 

Why was I thinking about it today? Because we're in the midst of the political season. Today was sign day across the entirety of the town. As I look around, I see signs from people that I know working organically in the town. They're at the meetings, they're at the local establishments. They go to the plays with the kids, they're at the open houses and conferences. You know their faces because they are neighbours. Their houses are...well, like yours. A few loose stair boards, maybe, but they'll get to them (I'm getting to mine tomorrow...). And then you have names that have cropped up without much being done in the town. And the posts are full of names from larger, national agendas that...well, I'll let you make your own judgements. What's worse...that national agenda is responsible for de-funding libraries, cutting education, kidnapping citizens and trafficking them to other countries. It makes me nervous. Makes me feel like a hobbit, wondering who on earth this Sharkey character was. 

In the end though, the hobbits won. And the Shire endured. Long live the Shire, my friends.

From the Desk of a Parliamentarian Wannabe

 I'd like to share a little story. The story mostly revolves around how much of a geek I am, so hopefully if nothing else you can find a little humour in that. Early on in my tenure as an educational union official, I went to the MTA Annual Meeting. If you've never been it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect - tons of union leaders, big names, lots of voting, and parliamentary procedure from dawn to dusk. What interests me at the meeting? Was it the stand out we were joining to support the nearby striking hotel workers? No, but that was great. Was it talking to other union siblings? Nope, though that was great. It was watching the Parliamentarian (it's a real job!) run the meeting. What was in order, what was out of order? How do we resolve this amendment? The part of my brain that likes following rules was going *berserk*. I loved it. I came back, looked up professional organizations, bought my own copy of Robert's (picture incoming!), and started following other parliamentarians and organizations. In short, I'm coming for you someday, Doug (he knows; we joke; it's out of order...see what I did there?).

 Simply put, I love procedure. I think order is so important, especially in a time when chaos and disorder are the watchwords of the day. When a group of people can meet, have a framework for meeting, and follow established procedures for resolving their differences...it's just beautiful. And I mean that. I find elegance in a fully followed agenda, in a chain of amendments. Do I know there are others who would love to just "do things"? Sure. But just "doing things" often ends up with a lack of clarity. 

So, when I watched the most recent video for the meeting for the position I'm running, I was dismayed. Public Comment is a cornerstone of local government, and the letter and the spirit of that I feel was violated. I can't understand why a vote to require unanimity in decisions *did not itself accept unanimity*. It seemed...well, it seemed off to me. It just doesn't seem to make much sense, and I've looked back at the meetings to see if I could follow the thread. As near as I can tell, the idea was that since so many votes are unanimous anyway, we might as well require that that be the metric in the bylaws. My question then would be...why? If you're honoring the way things just happen to occur, why *require* it? Putting aside questions of legality, that just seems like flawed logic.

And, it's not what I'd like to see for the library. Since I'm running for the position, I know I get some leeway to be very aspirational, so...I'll indulge. I'd like to see a library that is welcoming and free to everyone. I'd like to see it expand. I'd like to see services for every cross-section of society, from the Children's Story Time group as they sing the "Hello" song to the visits from folks living up at Cushing Residences. I'd like to see the resources gathered from all sources and poured towards expanding programs and services in the direction that the Library Director thinks best. I'm looking forward to hearing all of the different opportunities we can find for funding, if any have been untapped. I'm excited to give back to a library that has been a center point for my own growing family. I have had to explain to Clare that no, it does not mean that I will "own" the library if I win, so if you hear that from her...please excuse her overzealous marketing. 

If you vote for me, you're voting for someone who is precise, who cares, and who will work towards making our library even better. To paraphrase Austen, I shall be miserable without an excellent library. 

Papers Are In!

 Well, it is official! I handed in all of my paperwork today during lunch to run as a candidate for Library Trustee. I'm nervous and excited all at once! It's going to be exciting to show how much I'm interested in doing the right thing - doing the right work - for the town. I believe that there is a strong need for that in the world today, where so much of what is done is doing the "quick" thing, or the "easy" thing, or still worse the "selfish" thing. I'm certainly not perfect, but I think as long as you align yourself towards those forward goals, even if you fall, at least you'll be falling in that direction. 

Anyway, a potentially long post shorter, now comes the hard work. Now I actually have to put up a campaign! Fortunately, I made a lot of friends along the way getting these signatures, and I'm looking forward to working with those new allies.

 I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Tomorrow at 12:30, I'm going to go sit in the library and wait for some invited people to sign my nomination papers for the position of Trustee. I imagine a question that could crop up is, well, why wait in the library? Why not wait at home? I've been reading a fair bit recently on the topic of "third spaces" and how they are a dwindling thing in today's world. Third spaces are places that are not home, not work (or school, if you're younger), where you can just...exist. Specifically, where you can just exist without having to pay money, buy something, rent something, subscribe to something, or sign up for a free email of something (that you'll inevitably end up paying for!). 

 For generations, third spaces were physical, and they had some kind of other purpose as well. There were malls, sidewalks, parks, just to name a few. Over time, though, those diminished. Libraries serve that purpose now in many places. It's something I'd love to see return more. Meeting up with a friend...at the library. Having a club...at the library. It's just such a perfect and conducive atmosphere! 

So, briefly, I'm excited. I look forward to seeing everyone who has come to sign, and also anyone else that I meet along the way. 

 Now, I'm also excited because 3/16 I'll be going to see the Dropkick Murphys, but I'll share more of that after the event, since I could go on and on right now ahead of time! 

Facebook? No...no. Twitter? Also, no, I can't say as I'm interested in that. YouTube? Maybe...but I'm admittedly not the most photogenic. Blogger. Isn't Blogger the early-2000's blog site? That let's you write all of your thoughts in a completely unrestricted way? Yes. That's the one. I'm going to go with that. If there's one thing I can do, it's write. 

Writing needs a "why", though. I say that all the time when I'm teaching rhetoric. I'm writing this blog because I'm starting a run for Library Trustee in my town - Hanover. This is going to be the primary place where I post information. 

Who am I? I'm Steve. I've worked and lived in town for a long time. I've been loosely involved in the political world of the town for a while now. I have three kids, a beautiful wife, and a nice little place in our beautiful town. We're all big readers, and we use the library often. It's my goal to help our library become the best that it possibly can be.

We're still some distance away from March 28th, when the signature pages are due for the candidates, but I'm excited to do a sort of "soft announcement" for the campaign here.