Get ready to yell, ‘Here come the BUMS’
Get ready to yell, ‘Here come the BUMS’

By Alan Chartock
Fri, Apr 29, 2005 8:44 am

One reason why political parties lose elections is that they often get arrogant and think they cannot lose. They select a substandard candidate who does not appeal to the whole electorate and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. That’s why in a city like New York or a state like Massachusetts, where you can hardly find a Republican, you get chief executives out of a very minority Republican Party.
In fact, it appears that the Democrats are about to do the same thing in New York. They will bring on a mediocre specimen as their candidate for mayor of New York. It is arrogance that always kills the political cat. This is the syndrome known as “Bring Up the Mediocre Specimens,” and for short we’ll call it “BUMS.”
Poor Freddy Ferrer. He’s a good guy with decent political instincts. His problem in the Big Apple is that he hasn’t got Mike Bloomberg’s billions or, for want of a better word, his centeredness. When you look at Bloomberg, you have a sense of a man who does what he thinks is right.
Oh, he’ll do what they tell him. He’ll take the mandatory trips to Israel or any other place they want him. He’ll even stoop to kiss babies. But on the big issues, even when his instincts are debatable, as in the new Jets stadium in New York, he sticks to his guns. That’s when Bloomberg watchers shrug their shoulders and say, “Hey, we think the guy is wrong, but he is to be admired for sticking to his guns. Maybe that’s how he got so rich.”
In this country, take it from me, nothing legitimizes a guy faster than having billions. Nothing.
The other guys say something, often something stupid, and then spend the rest of their time apologizing for having said it. Let’s face it, when Ferrer, started equivocating about the police and Amadou Diallo and what was right and what was wrong, he probably thought that he could pick up some of those centrist voters who think the police need to be backed up. Maybe he was looking at Staten Island or the moderates who call themselves Democrats but vote Republican. He didn’t see the truck heading toward him with the parking brake off.
Or take the case of the still obscure Rep. Anthony Weiner. He likes to lecture others about ethics, but turns out to have accepted campaign money from the gambling casinos. You really have to wonder what’s on their minds when they are taking the goodies. Don’t they know that it will come back to bite them in the posterior maximus?
I tried explaining this to my very bright students. When political parties get arrogant and assured that they will win, they pick a candidate who is liked among the political elite, sometimes known as the clubhouse boys. These people, while good human beings, are often known as bums. So I asked the class to come up with a phrase to go with the letters BUMS. One very smart young woman came up with “Bring Up the Mediocre Specimens.” I told her that she was making history and that “The BUMS Syndrome” would someday be taught in political science classes around the world. I assured her that others would swear they had invented the concept and at least a few Ph.D. dissertations would be written about the subject but she would receive no credit. I told her that someone would attribute BUMS to Benjamin Franklin.
Nevertheless, I was there. I was witness to the birth of the concept and I want it inscribed in the annals of political science that Vanessa Renée Casavant, responding to my question, “What does BUMS stand for?” came up with it. Do you have any idea what it must be like to be in your 20s and invent something that will far outlive us all? Heady stuff.
The next time you see an arrogant political party pick a substandard candidate who probably will not win, turn around and say, “Golly gee whiz, Martha, that’s a pretty good example of the BUMS Syndrome that Dr. Chartock first identified and Vanessa first named.”
Don’t kid yourself - they do it with presidential candidates as well as with mayors and governors. Sometimes we call it CYOT or “Cutting Your Own Throat.”
As we approach the next election get ready to yell it out, “Here come the BUMS.”


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- posted by Raymond @ 5/02/2005 10:18:00 AM

 
Town libraries play a vital role
I,Publius
Town libraries play a vital role
By Alan Chartock
Special to The Eagle

What are libraries worth to a town? How important are they to who we are as a society? Great Barrington Finance Committee member Karen Smith has spoken out against a plan to borrow money to complete the library renovation plan. She says that the library folks knew they were going to come up short and had a responsibility to come clean about it. I'm sure the always-forceful Ms. Smith spoke for a lot of taxpayers when she voiced her objections.

Selectman Doug Stephenson rebutted her, suggesting that an overrun of this kind is nothing unusual and happens all the time. Smith was overruled by her Finance Committee. In my opinion, the Finance Committee knew what they had to do and did it, despite the fact that some folks might get angry with them.

As do other citizens, the Chartocks pay a lot of town taxes of one kind or another. We pay enormous amounts of money to the town for ugly sidewalks that resemble a lunar landscape and that very few of us want. We pay to fund a Police Department with a budget of almost $1 million. Meanwhile, it spends money like a drunken sailor on, among other things, cops answering phones when they should be out patrolling.


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When you compare those expenditures with the library renovation cost overrun, things are quickly put into perspective. We have a dumbed-down country. Our kids can't or won't read. If you don't believe that, talk to the folks who know the statistics, including the people who publish newspapers. They're scared to death.

Back in the day, I spent every afternoon at the public library. My family didn't have a lot of money, and when I wanted to hear a particular record, I went to the library. Mario Cuomo used to tell me how libraries figured in his education. Cuomo and I were not alone in our reliance on the library. Now, as then, libraries provide kids with a place to escape if their homes are not a suitable place to study and do homework. We have superb reference librarians ready to help kids whose parents, for whatever reason, may not be available. Think about all the senior citizens living on fixed incomes. Their quality of life is greatly improved by libraries, where they can borrow books, read the papers and hear interesting lectures.

If you think about it, our libraries are among the most egalitarian institutions that we have. They help to even things out.

A town that puts sidewalks above libraries needs to get its head shrunk. The fact is that the Great Barrington town meeting has always voted overwhelmingly to support its Mason Library and has given a tremendous endorsement to the library expansion.

The Big Dig cost overruns in Boston have collectively cost billions of dollars. We barely hear a peep about that from our fiscal watchdogs. We build schools that cost us millions, and we should. What frustrates me are those people who, for some reason, can't understand that libraries are a basic part of our education and culture.


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Today's libraries need places to operate. With the recent popularity of CDs, videos and books on tape, space is at a premium. There are children who do not have access to computers. Libraries need to provide those kids a place to come to use computers so they do not become victims of the "digital divide," where the kids of the wealthy have computers and the children of those at the lower end of the economic spectrum do not.

Here is a basic test. Let every one of us try to remember our experiences with a public library. Let us think back to a librarian who helped us out.

Let us remember what has happened to this country -- people aren't reading and therefore aren't thinking. Let us prioritize and think of what is most important for our community. As for the libraries and the police and the Big Dig, let each person do a better job of estimating costs. In the end, though, let us think about what we need to do to make our towns and cities and country better and fairer places to raise our children and perpetuate the best of our culture and our society. You can't do that without first-rate libraries.



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- posted by Raymond @ 5/02/2005 10:17:00 AM