Going Gaga

Sometimes I wonder how many Lady Gagas reside among us, sharing their creativity with a chosen few.  Like her, a magazine might name them among the 100 "most influential people in the world" but for their avoidance of the limelight, fame and money.  Maybe they're as influential as Obama and Oprah, in a silent, clandestine sort of way.

Look at local advocates who attend meetings of school boards and government bodies, some of whom think now is not the time to cut back on education spending because our future will suffer if we do.  Of all the investments we make, educating our children should top the list, yet that is where we head first for budget cuts. Like the senior executives we love to hate, we allow short-term perspectives to prevail over long-term.  By the way, I'm thinking every road should be a toll road -- enough of transportation socialism!  It's also time to face the fact that the prices we pay for gasoline, propane, electric power and even water are much too low, failing to take into account their externalities (smog, oil spills, flushed antibiotics, etc.).  If we paid realistic prices for everything, I bet we'd have funds for education.

As for me, I'm too self-centered to sit for hours through public meetings.  Taking a cue from Lady Gaga, maybe I should show up in sculptured pants with a little replica of the Washington Monument protruding you know where.  Then they might listen to me read or sing a current-events poem (or have me arrested on some trumped-up charge). 

"How about an Iwo Jima on your head," says Virginia, "with the flag of course?"

"Maybe a Leaning Tower of Pisa," says the Joker, "tilting right, or left?"