From Joy Pacifici, Elementary School Teacher:
I like math. I didn’t always like it – when I was a kid, I wasn’t very good at it, and it didn’t come easily. But now, now I like math. Math and Politics. Let’s start by summing it up (sum being the answer in an addition problem). In the end, it doesn’t matter how much my candidate wins by, as long as he wins by 1. One. That’s all he needs. One point on the big board. It won’t matter if he has been a ‘victim’ of the ‘Bradley Effect’ or not. It won’t matter if he won formerly ‘red’ states or all the ‘blues’. 2 years of name calling, wildly out of control political spending and mind-boggling idiocy and thinly veiled bigotry won’t make one tiny bit of difference. All he needs, in the end, is one point more than his opponent. Or, to put it in mathematical terms: Obama > McCain.
Let’s talk about fractions. When you do fractions, you sometimes think of them as pieces of the pie. I imagine the country cut up into little slices of pie that magically can turn from red to blue. I have to hope that I live in a slice that is blue. Frankly, I think slicing us up into bits is counterproductive in the long run… I think it’s time that we think of ourselves as blueberries (or cherries?) in the pie, instead of slices – we should each count equally.
And then there is the lowest common denominator. This is when you find a way for two fractions to coexist in the same terms so that they can be manipulated. We boil ourselves down to find our least, to see where we match others in the most simplified, pedestrian of terms. I don’t want to be a lowest common denominator. It’s fine in math, but as a person, I think we should find the highest point on which we can coexist. I think it might be interesting if, instead of trying to see the people of our country as the lowest commonality, that we should start thinking about ourselves and the way we interact in the highest way we can find. Why is it so great to be like those who struggle? Don’t we want to excel? Perhaps if we readjust our thinking to cater to the highest common factor we won’t be in this pickle.
As for ‘Joe the Plumber’, what is it that makes it so great that he is a plumber, a struggling worker? I have a dear friend who is a plumber. He makes a very nice living for his family, he is a lovely man and he works very hard but even he wants his sons to get the finest education possible so that they can grow up to be more than he is, to be highly educated and make a six figure income and be special, rather than common. And, frankly, my plumber friend is not exactly common either. He is exceptional in character and kindness. I doubt he appreciates the intimation that he is the same as Joe. I wonder if Joe even likes being thought of as ‘common’.
How about plain old addition? I’m talking old addition. Old. 72 is old. I love my father, but, although I think he is the smartest man on the planet, he’s not in great health and at almost 68, he’s too old to be president. Or, how about adding up thousands of dollars for dresses and designer shoes and makeup artists to impress all those ‘Joe’s and Jane’s’ out there? When I do my job, I do the best I can with what’s in my closet, and honestly, I don’t think that all of my clothes and shoes cost as much as one of those ‘hockey mom getups’, if you added it up.
So, let’s look at the math that is at stake here; If there are 9 Supreme Court Justices and 3 retire, how many women will lose the right to choose? If Georgie spends $1 billion a month on his own personal war games, how much will Georgie spend in 5 years? Six years? If you have 3 kids and insurance for each of them costs $2000 and you only have $1200 per child, per year, how long with it be until you can’t take them to the doctor? You do the math.
Published with the express permission of the author.
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