[PEN-L:1911] American of the Year

[Nativejmc@xxxxxxx]

AOL continually has all these pop-up windows, scams, ads and votes. So I saw
this "Vote for the American of the Year". I went to the site and it said that
as a result of previous voting, "the field  of candidates" had been narrowed
to Bill, Hillary, Oprah, Christopher Reeve, Mark McGuire, Greenspan,, Mathew
Shepard, John Glenn,  Kenneth Starr and Jesse "The Body" Ventura.

This is really revealing. First of all, just like in the regular elections
with programmed forced choices or restricted menus no "none of the above"
option or in this case even a write-in. No notion of what previous process
resulted in this narrowed and forced menu of "choice".

The I'm trying to find a common denominator to get an idea of what it takes to
be "American of the Year". We got one guy who can talk to Senators conduct
extremely serious business while simultaneously getting a blow job and
straight-faced, bald-faced lie about it. We got his wife whose main
contribution seems to be not divorcing him or doing a Lorena Bobbit on
him--yet. We got an Ayn Randist in charge of money supply who so far hasn't
put in the usual restrictive high unemployment-generating monetary policy that
would put Bill out for sure. We got a guy who "amazes--and is in awe of
--himself" by hitting 70 home runs in baseball. We've got one person who was
the tragic murder victim of two homophobic killers he met in a bar and so his
main contribution seems to be as a victim. We've got another whose most recent
contirbution was a very expensive glory/nostalgia/PR flight in a space
shuttle. We,ve got a very very rich African-American woman with a talk show
that is not nealry as freaky as Jerry Springer (a very rare person and rare
contribution). We've got an actor who while persuing a hobby for the ultra-
rich (aquestrian sports) winds up paralyzed but still trucking around in a
wheelchair. Then we have a Special Prosecutor who as an agent of fascist
forces intent on a coup, has legimitized the use of all sorts of previously
banned words, concepts and practices on the public media--cigar anyone?

Well as usual, the menu was rigged, no chance for a none of the above vote
that would force a whole new election and still no notion of that common
denominator or "right stuff" that makes an "American of the Year." Not even a
write-in possibility or the possibility of selecting someone from the past. So
I finally settled on Jesse "The Body" Ventura the new Governor of Minnesota
and for providing a clear bridge between and metaphor for the worlds of pro-
wrestlling and politics--each a concentrated ard revealing metaphor for the
other (Suits for wrestlers and tights for politicians anyone?)

As usual, the menu off "choice" reveals no real choice as well as some very
serious and very pathological forces and individuals in a very pathological
system that would suggest such criteria of "greatness" and such candidates.

Jim Craven