Olympia J. Snowe, United States Republican Senator from Maine - now there is a name to remember. She was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994 and in 2006, she was re-elected to her third, six-year term. She recently announced she would not seek re-election for a fourth term.
I am not writing about Senator Snowe as any commentary on the work she has accomplished or not accomplished. I am certain that, as with any national politician, she has her supporters and her detractors. Furthermore, I am confident that, within her home state of Maine, there are those who celebrated upon hearing her declaration that she would not run again. Such is life in the political limelight.
What disturbs me greatly is a statement she made in her announcement to not seek re-election. She has always been classified as a moderate and she cited the disappearance of "moderatism" (my term, not hers) as a reason for not running again. She went on to explain that the halls of congress have become so partisan that there was no room for moderates. Basically, folks, she was saying she had fought the great fight but was out of energy trying to keep a middle ground for policy on anything.
Must this polarization continue? Is the media to blame? Has our country become divided between what each side declares the other to be - flaming socialist liberals or red-necked, evangelical social conservatives? This whole mess reminds me of playground turf wars that occur in elementary school.
Why cannot our country discover what musicians discovered when music began? That all music need not - no, must not - go either fast or slow, and certainly not one or the other tempo all of the time. Our human psyche needs variations in tempi and, most importantly, needs a moderate tempo from time to time. Yes, there is a time and place when con fuoco (with fire) and vivace are important to the story line of life and there are times when adagio and lento are more suited to the story being told BUT there is also a place when andante (a walking tempo) and moderato are called for.
At present, our country is headed down a path controlled by "ludicrous speed", a term from the 1987 Mel Brooks comedy, Spaceballs. This ludicrous term perfectly describes the concept of going faster than one can handle and that is exactly what is happening on the political scene today.
Musicians learned long ago to work together. Do you think that within an orchestra or band there would not be disagreement on what tempos should be indicated? Of course there are, but the musicians instinctively understand that there must be a unified understanding of tempo otherwise several reactions occur, two of them being the music falls apart and the musicians lose their jobs.
Music and politics are not such strange bedfellows as one might think. Let's throw out the vivace and lento proponents and try the moderato and andante concepts. There just might be beautiful music somewhere in there.
Andantecora impartialparo
