Jackson Day - Meeting President Clinton

PLAIN TALK - Originally published in the 9/1/2209 Edition of the Weakley County Press

This past weekend I had the privilege of briefly meeting former President Bill Clinton. It was only a split second hand-shake, but I'll remember it for the rest of my life. President Clinton is my first president. The Clinton/Gore campaign was the first one I really cared about once I was old enough to vote. President Clinton was my Mom's age; his daughter could have been my little sister. He understood that the challenges of my generation differed from those of his but more importantly he acknowledged that the concerns of citizens my age were just as legitimate as those of my parents even though there weren't as many of us. It wasn't an ideal presidency, though I don't think such a thing exists. Regardless, I'm glad I cared then, and I'm glad I've continued to care ever since.


I was able to afford college because of the policies of the Clinton/Gore administration. I am able to live in Weakley County and work via the Internet because of the foresight of my government to invest in computer networking technology during the 1990's. It's amazing really, a dreaded “government program” in the Defense Department led to the development of the Internet we use today. At the time I don't think it was anyone's intention to have 14% of the private work force telecommuting barely a decade later. Why is it that we only ever hear the negative side of public policy and take the positive for granted?

President Clinton spoke about the need for a new source of jobs every 5 to 10 years. During the 1990's we were still riding the technology wave started back in the early 1960's by NASA. The connection isn't made very often, but anyone who has a cell phone, home computer or even a television that isn't the size of a small sofa can thank the research of NASA (another government program). Some endeavors just too costly or unprofitable for the private sector to take on – NASA had to fund the research to make computers small and durable enough to travel into space and that technology was shared with the American people – the most creative and entrepreneurial bunch to ever walk the planet.

As the former president spoke, I realized yet again the importance of good public policy – as a nation we have a history of good ideas and some bad ones, too. But since when is it OK to give up and do nothing and just let the world advance ahead of us? Since when is 1000 pages too much for grown men and women with large staffs to comprehend in a month? I believe the summer reading list for most high schools topped out higher than 1000 pages.

When former President Clinton was coming down the line of happy people shaking hands and saying hello, I tried to come up with something really great to say. All that I could come up with was Thank You and with 20/20 hindsight I think it was appropriate. It wasn't a Thank You for NAFTA, or the scandals or any of the other low points of his administration but instead it was a Thank You for even bothering to try.

Congressman Tanner, Senator Corker and Senator Alexander are heading back to Washington this week. I think they should all know that we are still waiting for all three of them to give Health Insurance Reform even the slightest bit of effort. Peoples lives are at stake.

Something they may want to think about is a man named Tommy Douglas he was recently voted greatest Canadian of all time on a popular Canadian television show. We've never heard of him down here but that's quite an honor. What did he do that endeared him to the Canadian people? He introduced their version of Canadian Universal Health Care. It does make me wonder – maybe there are folks in Washington who are more interested in making sure a Democrat doesn't get such an honor 20 years from now than there are folks who are genuinely concerned about our health.