By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EDITION, MAY 22-24, 2015) — On Tuesday, we voted. It is still an empowering feeling. Of course, we had something for which to vote. Some 39% of the electorate (619 out of 1612) turned out in Stockbridge to elect new members of the select board and other town offices. It’s not the 50% + 1 that we would prefer but pushing 40% is better than numbers in the low 20s.

You’ll recall that in the previous municipal election (2013), Pittsfield could only manage a pathetic 24-point-something percent. That’s when The Suits snuck in the new city charter, one that reveals more of its ugliness as the insiders apply it to policy. Three out of four didn’t bother to vote and therefore didn’t vote for the new document. Count those who voted against it in the losing position, and you have this key document activated by about 15% of the total electorate.

15% rules 85%

That’s not democracy. That’s a protectorate, whereby the insiders protect their favored status. The inner sanctum remain sacred, open only to the “high priests.” The fiefdoms stand intact. The Lords of the burg live well while taking care of the bottom feeders and leeches. Meanwhile, the beleaguered middle class continues to get taxed out of existence.

THE PLANET proposes two electoral reforms:

(1) The 50%+1 Rule — For government at all levels, no election should count unless turnout equals 50% plus one of the total electorate.

(2) The NOTA Rule — That would put “None of the above” in a “candidate” slot for every contested office. This would at least allow We The People who do fulfill their civic obligation to vote to finally be assured of an electoral option to their liking in every election.

If Pittsfield would institute these two simple measures, turnout would routinely top 60%. It might even rival the post-war years and the 50s, when turnouts in the 70s and 80s were common.

With that, we leave you with a great poem by one of the great authors of children’s literature. This is a much parodied poem, but that’s only a sign of its pervasiveness and therefore its power. Before we present Kipling‘s “If,” THE PLANET reminds you that open comment lines are now operating. You cannot by definition go “off topic.” Feel free to bring up any subject you wish. Just keep it clean and as intelligent as you can make it.

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IF

By RUDYARD KIPLING

If you can keep your head when all about you
  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
  But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
  Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
  And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
  If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
  And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
  Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
  And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
  And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
  To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
  Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
  Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
  If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
  With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
  And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son.

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Have a great and safe Memorial Day Weekend!

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“Well that’s all right, Mama. That’s all right for you. That’s all right, Mama, do it any way you do.” — Elvis Presley, “That’s All Right,” (1954).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.