The North Carolina Primary
by Danny Fisher
Photo by Dana Warner Fisher.
I voted today in the North Carolina primary. If you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably noticed that I tend to move around a lot. As such, and because my stuff is in storage with my parents in Greensboro, I’m registered in North Carolina.
I just moved out of New Haven, CT, this past week, and am now back with my parents in Greensboro until I hear back about some jobs I’ve applied for. Obviously, I returned just in time for today’s primary.
I won’t be discussing which presidential candidate I voted for. Do I think it’s important who gets the job? Of course–it’s vitally important. Do I have a strong opinion about who the best person for the job is? You’d better believe it. (I even gave money to a campaign.) But I’m a religious leader of sorts. I pass myself off as something like that, anyway. (Though it looks like I’ll be a totally legit, ordained Buddhist minister before the year is out.) And I tend to think it’s not a very good idea for religious leaders to publicly endorse candidates. Sure, they have a right to do it so long as they don’t do it inside of a church. But would anyone listen to them if they weren’t throwing around the religious leader thing at least a little bit? It’s all kind of murky to me. It just doesn’t make me comfortable to endorse a candidate here.
Issues, though, are certainly the providence of religious persons. In fact, I think we as Buddhists should speak up more on certain issues. If I may take a page from the Karl Barth playbook, I’d like to suggest that the Dharma in America should be preached with the zafu in one hand and the newspaper in the other. As I told a Jamaican radio station last year, the Buddha’s Dharma is a Social Dharma–make no mistake about it. You can count on me to continue writing about the environment, the war, health care, and other issues here.
This blog sure isn’t a church (or temple or Dharma center). And I’m not an ordained anything yet. But I’m not going to start doing something that I think is kind of a bad habit for a religious leader. Besides, whoever gets the job as the forty-forth President of the United States, I’m probably going to have to get on his or her case from time to time. That’s part of being an issues guy.
So while I’m not going to tell you who I voted for and why, I will encourage you to do a lot of reading, researching, and thinking about the candidates. And, you know, make sure to vote. If you didn’t vote in your primary…well, do it next time. (Remember that people died so we could all get to do it.) And make sure you register to vote in December. You can do so now right here.
can you tell me where you got that hat or is that something a religious leaded (not yet I know) should do(give me some fashion advice padre) ?
Fashion advice from moi? HA!
I got this hat at DelMonico Hatter in New Haven. My roommate Phil had a great hat from there, and he told me that he just went in and let them tell him what to get. I did the same thing. I told them that I needed a hat, and to give me what they thought looked good. (I was hoping for an Indiana Jones-style fedora, but I think it would look like a sombrero on my head.)
Are there any men’s hatters in Boulder/Denver? I never looked. Anyway, I’d recommend finding one and letting them tell you what to get.
i sure there are a haberdashery or two in the boulder/denver are that specialize in hats. Thanks for the link. YO!
Oh yeah–more specifically, it’s a hat made by this company.
Very cool. You look good in it.
Thanks, dude.
No fair not telling us whom you voted for.
Surely, you can maintain mysterious airs while playing a game of [strike]twenty[/strike] three questions.
1) Has the candidate ever given birth?
2) Was the candidate’s father from Kenya?
3) Was the candidate ever held for a long period of time in Vietnam?
Heya Tom!
As the Buddha once said, “Of all beings, there is not one who has not been my mother, my father from Kenya, and held for a long period of time in Vietnam innumerable times. Each has been my mother, my father from Kenya, and held for a long period of time in Vietnam countless times, and will become my mother, my father from Kenya, and held for a long period of time in Vietnam many times again.”
: )
DCF