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April 25, 2006
Softball - in a parallel universe
by Sylvia S Tognetti
It is probably delusional to even think that we could all ever at least play by the rules of the science policy game when we can't even agree on the rules for informal softball games. According to the DCCC blog (via Digby) Republican teams on Capitol Hill have just seceded from the Congressional Softball league and formed their own - "after accusing its Democratic commissioner, Gary Caruso, of running a socialist year-end playoff system that gives below-average teams an unfair chance to win the championship." This "league" is an informal tradition that has been going on for 37 years. The year I worked as a research assistant at the now defunct OTA (~1987), they even let me play. To avoid embarrassment, I would have been happy just to be there to watch and catch a late afternoon breeze, but with some encouragement, I even managed to hit a few balls. I probably still have a "TechSox" t-shirt somewhere. Most of what I recall is that the rules, if they existed at all, got made up along the way, and that the teams of Republican staffers took the thing way too seriously. The whole point was that we could all at least get along on the softball field. No more I guess. Now, even in Major League baseball, the political affiliation of team owners is becoming a criteria for whether to fund baseball stadiums....
Does anybody else feel like we are all in the back seat of a car that is being driven by a two year old? This may seem like a minor issue but, to have any hope of resolving larger social conflicts, there has to also be what has been called the "capacity for peace." I can't remember what book I found that term in so pardon me for not including a reference but, what becomes important are those things we continue to do that transcend social and political divisions, like playing softball... Or assessment of science for policy - oh wait - OTA doesn't exist anymore. If we can't do that, what can we do? I'm not sure a single government can preside over parallel universes....
Posted by Sylvia S Tognetti at April 25, 2006 9:55 AM
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