by Matt Barr

Watcher's Council results, April 7

Plenty of great posts nominated April 5. Results announced yesterday:

Rhymes With Right won the Council category with Immigration Protests By High School Students. Nothing abstract here -- Greg, a high school teacher in Texas, talked about the issue with kids in his class planning to go all drama queen on the issue.

We talked about the immigration issue for a while -- I used examples of line-jumping in the cafeteria, and whether they would rather have someone who followed the rules or who "backstroked across the river" as a neighbor. the funny thing is, even the kids who I believe to be here illegally (or the children of illegals) said they would prefer those who follow the law.

The "protest" has what you might consider a happy ending. Go read the post.

Posts at Gates of Vienna and Right Wing Nut House tied for second in the voting.

American Digest lapped the field in the non-Council category with On the Return of History.

More and more throughout the 90s "History" was "out," and "Me" was in. "Me," "Having My Space," "How to Be Your Own Best Friend," "Me, Myself, I," were hallmarks of that self-besotted age. The History of Me was huge in the 90s and rolled right through the millennium. It even had a Customized President to preside over those years; the Most Me President ever. A perfect man for the time and one who, in the end, did not disappoint in choosing "Me" over "Country." How could he do otherwise? It was the option his constituency of Many-Million-Mes elected him to select. I know because I was into Me then and I voted for him because, well, because he seemed to be "just like me." It was a sad day when "Me" couldn't run for a third term, but The Party of Me offered up "Mini-Me" and a lot of Mes turned out for him too....

This is not to say that the incumbent administration is the Second Coming in any way, shape or form. Nor is it to say that Me-ness doesn't dominate that bumbling faction as well. Washington is always about Me-Magnified. In a way, it is true to say that a lot of what is going on is a fight over which set of Mes shall be master. But that is always the case.

Still there are always "differences of degree," and it is on those differences that one must judge. Weighing the two, it seems to me clear that there is, within the core of the current party in power, at least the recognition that "fun" is no longer what we need to be about at this time. Indeed, there is an understanding there, backed with deeds and policies, however flawed in conception and execution, that our holiday from history is over and we need to get back to business if we'd like to be around in any kind of recognizable form by mid-century. There is even, if you look at it closely, a distinct lessening of "Me" and the beginnings of an "Us" on the peripheries of the Party. Not a lot, but when you look at the other, there is none. Only a yearning for the warm mud of Me.

Read it all. Wolfgang Bruno has a captivating idea that would promote free inquiry and freedom of thought in the post Creating the Online Infidel Library, which came in second.

Full results at Watcher's site, and also on my left sidebar.

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