A Republican Came  Knocking

“Some one came knocking
At my wee small door
Someone came knocking
I’m sure, sure,  sure….

(poem “Some One”, by Walter de La Mere)

It was a Republican candidate. His name was Ralph Colavito. He was very reluctant to tell me he was a Republican claiming it was only incidental. He explained that “R” stood for Republican and his first name began with “R”.

I told him that  the Republican strategy of voter suppression made them completely  unacceptable to me.  He said he was unaware of this and requested examples. I told him of voter suppression in Florida, Ohio and, of course, about “Moral Mondays” in North Carolina. He explained he had not heard of this because he did not watch TV nor read the newspaper. To me that was a shocking admission. Ignorance as a defense!

But he dismissed voter suppression as not being  here in Maryland. I agreed but I wanted to make sure that obvious national Republican strategy does not come here, like it has in Republican states I told him.  

“But how about locally, right here “, he asked trying to change the subject. I reminded him that Howard County was among the top ten counties in America with a school system virtually second to none.

He kept insisting that he was not a politician, even though he was seeking political office.   I pointed out that all politicians were not bad. There are good politicians and bad politicians and how important it is to make that distinction, rather than generalize. I also  spoke about good Democrats and bad Democrats. His eyes lighted up then. I went on to point out that the bad Democrats acted like Republicans.

 I then bad him goodbye as I had things to do. As he left he muttered something about high crime rate in Oakland Mills and that Long Reach was a blighted area, but I had been very polite and patient so I terminated the visit.