Skip to main content

A Regular Person


 

Who/what is “a regular person”? For that matter, who isn’t a regular person? What is the difference? How could you tell?

Why do I ask? Well…

So, I'm doing something a little crazy - I started a podcast about what it would take for a regular person to run for president. It's called Why Not Me? 2028. If you have 20 minutes, I'd love for you to check it out - and if you like it, share it. - - Shana Bynon 

I was encouraged by a friend to listen to the most recent episode of Why Not Me? 2028, a podcast created and hosted by HoCoLocal Shana Bynon.


It’s an interesting question: what if a regular person ran for President? What kind of a regular person would you ask? Where would you find them?

The podcast began a year ago and has released fifteen episodes so far. While it starts with a focus on the presidency, it soon expands its reach of inquiry into other avenues of public service. And then it even gets local.

I mean - - it makes sense that you’d be able to find regular people in your own neighborhood, right?

I found the most recent episode to be informative and thought-provoking. 

“What Does a Central Committee do Anyway? An interview with Linda Lamppert”

Over the course of the interview Lamppert answers many of the questions I have been mulling over for quite some time:

  • What does a central committee do?
  • Could they be doing a better job?
  • Are there important things that should be added to its mission?
  • How could they help the public be better informed?
  • What influence do they have, if any?
And, most apropos to the topic of the podcast:
  • What kind of person runs for a Central Committee?
  • What motivates them to run?
The episode runs about 25 minutes and was an easy listen during my daily commute between HoCo and Baltimore County. Bonus: the discussion is engaging. It’s not a dry recitation of rules and requirements, in case you are put off by the thought of that. I certainly would be.

I think what I valued most about this episode was that it prompted me to have even more questions.  Ms. Lamppert made a convincing case that she’s the kind of local advocate who’d be willing to answer them.

I’ll keep you posted. 





Comments

  1. Please do not submit comments here. This function will be disabled shortly. Use the link above instead. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...