A Chance Enounter

I ran into Jesus the other day.  He was sitting on a bench on a bluff overlooking the Ocean in Carmel looking at the Sunset.  With his beard and rough looking cloak he looked like just another of the homeless guys I had seen around town, but the yellow glow around his head gave him away.

I just stood there for a minute, trying to figure out what to do.  I wanted to talk to him but he seemed to be enjoying his solitude, and I couldn't think of what to say.  The thought I could ask for his autograph popped into my head, but I was immediately embarrassed to have had the thought, so just sat down quietly on the other end of the bench.

"You should be embarrassed" he said, gently.  "But you don't need a reason to talk to me."

"Umm, how are..."  I stopped mid sentence, it was so banal.  What do you say to Jesus?

"I'm fine, thank you," he said.  "You say whatever you like.  Next you are going to wonder what I am doing here.  I am just having a little time to reflect.  I am retired you know."

"Retired?"  The word popped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

"Well, yeah.  My job ended 2000 years ago.  I just drop in from time to time to see how I did."    He paused for a minute then continued.  "It's a little frustrating, so sometimes I want to just chill."

I looked around, a little confused about what he would be doing in Carmel.

"It's very nice here, and I like to watch people play golf," he said.   "It takes my mind off the frustration.  You know Golf is one of the most frustrating games in the world.  I find it comforting to see how other people deal with the frustration."

"Next you are going to ask what I am frustrated about," he said, anticipating my question before it had fully formed in my head.  "God gave me the job of teaching the Jews to stop focusing on the sins of other people and reach into their heart to get to know God.  2000 years later instead of abolishing the power of those who wrap themselves in God to tell other people what to do my words have been used to set up hundreds of new organizations claiming to speak for God."

He sounded a little...worked up about this. 

"I suppose I am," he said.  "It wasn't easy you know.  Trying to tell people that the Temple bigwigs claiming to speak for God were not the path to God without getting thrown in jail was really hard.  That time the Pharisee's brought that poor women to me wanting me to order her to be stoned, that was close.  I'm not that glib you know."

"I talked all over Galilee to tell people all God wants from us is to accept our imperfections and love and support others, but all these people keep wrapping themselves in God to drum up support to use the government to lean on gay people, or stop people from having abortions, or drop bombs on some bad country." 

We sat in silence for a minute.  I was too surprised to even form a question in my head that he could mind-read.  But he continued after a moment.

"When God gave Moses the 10 Commandments to tell people how to please God he should have been more careful in his language.  He said "Thou shalt not... and ever since people have been adding the phrase "...or allow others to".  

"A few months ago the newspapers were full of stories about all these guys trying to pass laws to stop women from having abortions."  He shook his head.  "God told them in Genesis that the breath of life is imparted at birth, but they are all obsessed with creating definitions that will allow them to force women to bear children.  It is like they think God can't handle his own business."

"I've talked to God about making a clearer statement," he mused.  "Lots of times actually.  He is always kind and patient but basically tells me to butt out.  One time he told me the ones that figure out he wants people who chose him, not sheep he can herd, were the keepers."

He looked at me then smiled and slowly stood up.  "It's been nice talking with you," he said.  "But long walks are also good for dealing with frustration, and its time for my walk."

Before I could say anything I heard a noise behind me and looked back.  When I turned back toward him he was gone.  But there was a slip of paper on the bench.

"Good spot to be tomorrow evening," it said.  "Really great sunset scheduled."

Low Voter Turnout

In a recent conversation with a member of the State Assembly the conversation turned to the problem of low voter turnout.  The wealthy and politically powerful in California have learned they if they are willing to spend some money on an initiative measure that grants them some special benefit they can reap rewards vastly exceeding their costs if they time the ballot measure to make sure it gets on the ballot during a election with little on the ballot to attract voters to the polls.

A year or so ago it was the Banking industry seeking to require a 2/3 vote before taxes on Banks could be increased.  They timed the ballot measure for an off year election where the turnout would be very low, knowing that this issue was low on most voters radar, and that they could reliably sell their proposition to the 25% or so of voters who are virulantly anti-tax.  If turnout was down around 50% they were in the ball game, and below 50% approval was a slam dunk. They could, with 25% of the voting public, effectively preclude the legislature from changing corporate taxes with less than a 2/3 majority.

This member of the Assembly, clearly somewhat frustrated, suggested a laundry list of proposed solutions, automatic voter registration (not a bad idea) and mandatory voting (a bad idea) stuck in my mind.

The idea of mandatory voting raised my eyebrows (figurativly, I hope not literally as we were facing one another).  Clearly we could not, in a country that prides itself on its individual freedom, require people to vote.

It is a very real problem, but there are better solutions.  Here are a couple ideas:

1.  Make how many voters are needed for a measure to pass be contingent on turnout.  The lower the turnout, the higher the percentage for approval required.

2.  With regard to imposing 2/3 vote requirements specifically, the law should not allow a supermajority voting requirement to be imposed for any higher percentage than that percentage of the registered voters who actually vote for the proposition.