Does Richmond suffer from “locked-in syndrome?” Is that why the General Assembly and local governments alike seem to spin their wheels on the same issues? Every year, the issues and squabbles repeat themselves with mind-numbing regularity—the legislative equivalent of that ultimate déjà vu film, Groundhog Day.
On the state level: Transportation, indoor smoking bans, gun control (or lack thereof), collective bargaining, etc. On the local level: Who’s going to build a stadium for Richmond’s minor league baseball team? Who’s going to build a better mass transit system … but, hey, did you hear how great the airport’s doing (regional cooperation only seems to work when our leaders are taking off on junkets).
Back in River City, the speechifying continues long into the night—well, at least until it’s time to break for free drinks and food at The Jefferson—even as I-95 gets more gridlocked, urban schools need repairs, mental health programs need funding, the Metro line doesn’t get linked to Dulles airport, etc.
It’s just another year of status quo, of being “locked in” to the same old tendencies, rhetoric, and partisanship.
The Old Dominion’s tendency to act … well, old…and stuck in its ways occurred to me after watching The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The critically acclaimed French film is a poignant look at the attempts to help a French magazine editor, Jean-Dominique Bauby, after he suffers a stroke and slowly emerges from a coma.
Remarkably, with saintly help from his hospital therapists, Bauby finds a way to blink his way through the alphabet, resulting in the memoir that inspired the film. Bauby writes, “Paralyzed from head to toe, the patient, his mind in tact, is imprisoned inside his own body, unable to speak or move. In my case, blinking my left eyelid is my only means of communications.”
Which made me wonder …In our age of instant communication, but so little wisdom, wouldn’t it help the General Assembly and local governments—even the U.S Congress—if they stayed quiet before voting? Instead, taking a cue from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, they would cast their votes with a simple blink of the eye, a la M. Bauby. One blink for yes, two blinks for no.
Shall we find a way to build the same kind of quality schools in the city of Richmond that kids enjoy out in the suburbs? One blink.
Shall we do everything in our power to avoid a repeat of the Virginia Tech massacre? Blink.
Shall we finally find a way to actually use the $50 million-plus Main Street Station near the Capitol and bring affordable high-speed rail service to the I-95 corridor? Blink.
Shall we waste any more time arguing about smoking in restaurants, all the while accepting tobacco lobby money? Blink blink.
The legislative session would last a week, tops. We, the people, would simply nod in agreement.