I got this invitation to the inauguration in the mail today. Not tickets, mind you, but a big ole honking general invitation, although it was addressed to me (also had a handy dandy pull out sheet for a bunch of inauguration chachke's that I can buy if I Just Can't Seem To Make It to Washington). Well, I don't want to go to Washington. I've already read all those articles that were basically trying to threaten people away from coming, including the one today that says the Secret Service has basically walled off the bridges to DC to personal vehicles, which ticked off residents of Virginia. So, even though I have kin that live in Virginia and could probably stay with them if I wanted to go attend, I'd much rather watch it from here.
That brings me to a larger question I've thought about each time I've read about Bush or even a presidential candidate going to some town for this reason or that, including, not only this country but others as well. Every time Bush, for example, has gone to a place to give a talk or attend a fundraiser or do a photo-op at a school, etc, the local police has to be called out, roads are closed, to great inconvenience for those who live around there. Someone I know in Wisconsin told me that when Bush went to a neighboring building for some reason, her building was checked by the secret service and everyone was told to stay away from the windows, only because the windows looked out onto the other building. I've read stories before where the towns who went to such great expense had difficulty collecting from the government afterwards.
Why, instead, in this day and age, shouldn't more plans be made to have a virtual president attend via, say, satellite or a closed feed? Or even, if a company has it, via interactive office meeting setups, where there can be interactivity?
When the Texas Motor Speedway first opened, hub and I went to a county-western concert there. (As I recall, on whatever day that was, the evening ended with a huge thunderstorm and Travis Tritt had to be hauled off the stage because he didn't want to short-shrift the crowd, even while there was lightning all around!) Anyway, we weren't even close enough to see the band, which was on the other complete side of the speedway, but watched the band via some big screens positioned on our side. That led me to feel that I could have easily just watched this concert at home, except for having real hot sun burning my head.
Or take the big mega church phenomenon I've been reading about lately, where a preacher has several churches he does sermons for, and, rather than actually be AT the other churches, save one, the people in those congregations are watching him preach via a big screened satellite feed. I would expect that those who don't like that type of sermon don't attend those types of churches. I don't necessarily like the idea of one preacher many churches, but I do think the principle of someone being able to be semi-personally there for a group of people makes a lot of sense.
Consider. Suppose that Barack Obama was wanting to do something special for the people in the DFW area that had some points targeted for us living around here. Rather than travel here, in his air force one plane, at great expense to the taxpayer, he could instead do his talk at some venue and have a screen set up. He could even take audience questions. For the people attending, they would still have had to travel to wherever to hear or see him, and perhaps he could even offer an internet feed for those who couldn't attend. Bingo. Gone are the local costs of supplying security, closing down the roads, and then soaking the taxpayer for them.
Incidentally, that goes for any other congressional office as well. Our congressional representative, Chet Edwards, hasn't held a town hall meeting here in, so far as I can remember, at least a couple of years, although he has had them in Granbury. I got a questionnaire in the mail today from him, on some extremely nice paper and paid for by my and your expense, asking about what congressional issues are for him in 2009. What about actually having a town hall here? I'd be happy with a town hall in which he showed his face, and could take questions, even if he couldn't actually get here in person. It can be done!
One more thing about the technology. A person who is able to hold meetings via technology can schedule many more for the public than if he or she has to take out time for travelling. That's one reason corporations have been doing long-distance meetings for some time; it's more efficient and the costs are much, much less to do. I'd be quite happy to have Obama be that type of president, allowing me to see and hear him more often and consider that type of public meeting to be frugal and wise with taxpayer money as well.
