I’m going to miss Bill Clinton when he leaves office – in spite of what Mr.

Tuesday, July 18, 2000

I’m going to miss Bill Clinton when he leaves office – in spite of what Mr. Alcorn says.

A favorite lyric of Bob Dylan, who incidentally performed last Friday at Target Center, says, "Sometimes even the President of the United States must stand naked."

Clinton brought this to life – at least part of it. I guess he wasn’t completely naked standing in the Oval Office. What other President can say that. Well, maybe others. However, he or they perhaps preferred not to expose their "intimate nature."

Anyway, before long, Clinton will soon be free to pursue to his private interests and like it or not there will be a successor.

Vaclav Havel said, "The real test of a person is not how well he plays the role he has invented for himself, but how well he plays that roll destiny assigned to him."

It seems to me that both Al Gore and George W. Bush are ‘inventing their roles’ in their race to the Oval Office. Maybe Gore should consider going back to journalism for a few years and possible regain a better sense of what is going on in America.

And Bush, when he speaks he reminds me of his father’s vice president from Indiana.

Young George, like old George, was brought up to borrow the words used to describe his father’s day as "being born on third base but thinking he hit a triple."

I do like Tipper Gore, partly because I had my picture taken with her at the college, but more so because she has suffered from depression. With Gore in office maybe mental health issues would get the attention they so desperately deserve.

The current Atlantic Monthly features Gore on the cover with fangs extending from his mouth – signifying his "vicious" nature I presume. Of course Bush is holding his own with his capital punishment.

Bush’s greatest appeal, at least as I can see, is his willingness to go along with what others say especially if they stand behind what they say with money – big money, perhaps because his own thinking seems limited. In that realm he is probably an ideal choice.

Of course we have television to influence our votes. Last week I saw Gore doing a weak Paul Wellstone imitation in his attempt to fire up the NAACP Convention. Black leaders smiling behind him as he bid his ‘promises’ and rolled or drolled on about his plan. I think he could be more successful to sit there and listen. Both of them could stand to listen more.

Walter Cronkite said, "We’ve got a terrible monkey on our back, people are getting most of their news from television, but they’re not getting enough adequate information, perpetuating a fairly ignorant democracy. It bothers me a great deal."

Nelsen Algren said, "The American culture is a pudding of mediocrity – it is done by being extremely careful about disapproving of the society in which one lives while at the same time being very angry at its art."

However, in Buddhism it says, "Just be ordinary and nothing special." There’s a nice ring to that too.

Shifting to the flood for minute, I must say that before the corps of engineers came along, the house I grew up in, now owned by my niece, was never flooded. It was never flooded until the course of the creek was changed to straighten out River Road.

Then, the creek ran only a few feet from the back door. There, there was a high bank. The creek then was usually shallow with a rock bottom you could see. When the heavy rains fell, the water spilled out across the low land on the west side of the river.

The river now is not clear. The rocks are gone. In its banks, it is quite a distance from the back door except when it floods. Now the river spills to the east. Last week it flooded the house.

When I was a kid, before its course was changed, I’m not sure this would have happened, at least there. Then there were run-offs.

I still miss what it was like. The steel bridge was nearby and at an angle permitting one car at a time to cross. People were courteous and took turns.

The woods were there and the wild grapes we munched on. You can’t skip rocks there anymore either, like we did so often in our youth. They were buried in the move, replaced by mud. The old fishing hole disappeared with the change.

Then, there was concern about raw sewage making its way to the creek. Watching the Cedar, Turtle and Dobbins Creek spill over last week I wondered about the chemicals that make their way to the river – how much are they a part of the water.

Is this any better?