Guest Column

Changing politicians starts with changing voters' minds

By MARY PARTINGTON
Published January 29, 2008

"Here's your 2 cents in change."

Is that "chump change?"

Be sure to change your oil every 3,000 miles, change your sheets every week and you can change your mind as often as you need. You can have a change of heart, change of life, change of pace and a change of hands. To change can mean putting on a new set of clothes. Women can enter an ambiguous time of their lives known as "the change." That is the time a woman can go from being called "hot" to being just hot most of the time.

Sometimes we change our hair in style or color. We can change the kind of auto we drive and the places we shop. Every January, first we vow to change our weight and change how we exercise.

"Ch-ch-ch-changes!" That is a lyric from a David Bowie song and it is definitely the mantra of the political season.

We have heard about being a force for change. How many candidates promise he or she will change the way Washington works? Even those who have been in the Washington scene for years are going to change things.

What does it mean to change? Change is defined as to make something different in a particular way, to alter or make it radically different. We can incur change when we replace, shift, switch, modify or transform a thing or a person.

It is very difficult to change. The reality of change is that the only thing we can really change is ourselves. In relationships, no matter how we yell and scream, the only one we can change is ourselves or our attitude toward the relationship. You cannot marry a frog and change him into a prince, only the frog can change himself into the prince. There are no magic kisses.

The addicted person is the only person who can cure his or her addiction. Twelve-step programs are very successful. Once the addicts accept they are addicted to drink, drugs, money, sex or food, then they can begin to overcome their addiction. With the acceptance of the help of a higher power and the help of other addicts, the addicted finally begin the change that will save their lives.

The serenity prayer puts the subject of change into perspective. To be able to change the things you can change and to accept what cannot be changed is the secret of true change.

What do we want to change in America? What is so wrong with the way things are? We can all agree we are tired of the sniping rhetoric of the politicians.

We want those who have the ability to write our laws to have the best interests of the country in mind. We want politicians to stop buying votes by spending millions of dollars on projects that only benefit a few. We want integrity, honesty and intelligence in those who run our country. What change can we demand and expect? What reality about our political system do we have to accept?

How many times have politicians vowed to change the way things are done? In reality, change is very hard to come by. Just like the people who hope the spouse they marry will be a prince or a princess, the people we vote for turn out to be frogs after all.

Mary Partington lives in New Port Richey.

[Last modified January 28, 2008, 21:09:25]