Tom the Handyman

Not to be confused with the lamented campaign hot potato of last year, the infamous Joe the Plumber. Nope, Tom the Handyman is real and I know him. But, the political ramifications are almost equal.
Tom is a guy who works for the owner of my condo apartment. Whenever something in our unit needs repairs, we call Tom and he usually shows up pretty quickly, even in light of the fact that he recently started a new job as a medical attendant at the local Veterans Administration hospital.
Such was the case when we suddenly need both toilet tanks to be completely rebuilt. A job that stretched over two days, but that's okay because Tom's a pretty neat guy to talk to. He's in his 60s, a former Vietnam vet, and somebody who has done a lot of "book learning" as Jed Clampett might say. He's amazingly unbiased in an increasingly biased world and I always appreciate hearing his take on issues because of this incredible and innate ability to be non-judgemental.
So, last week, I'm standing nearby to lend an extra hand if needed as Tom takes apart a toilet tank. And the round table discussion began with a rather ominous question from Mr. Fix-It.
"So, tell me. What do you think of Obama?"
Ummmmmmm.
Because diverse opinions these days can ilicit dirty looks and even worse, I want to choose my answer carefully. Usually, I prefer not to discuss politics in public. I took a deep breathe before speaking.
"Well, so far, I'm not a huge fan."
I think I'm in a safe zone here. Giving my true feelings but with a little fence straddling at the same time. I braced for Tom's response.
"Well, I voted for him..."
Len cues a big gulp.
"...and I think the guy's a disaster."
Whew.
Okay, now anybody who reads this blog regularly knows I don't like the current President. But, what might be surprising to you all is that my view of Obama is pretty much the same opinion I have of most political leaders. They all suck. Most spend all their time either getting the job in the first place and then figuring out how to keep it. Very little care and attention is paid to their constituencies. Their fans and/or enemies, those either on the far left or the far right, pull and pull the rest of us as if we're the last piece of Turkish Taffy the day after Halloween. Nobody wins. Everybody loses. And style trumps substance every day and in every way.
But style seems to be all we are concerned with and people/voters spend a lot less time thinking about world and American history than they do about the most inconsequential of trivia. I don't give a shit what Michelle Obama is wearing. I don't give a shit what they name the family dog. I don't give a shit that their daughter was so excited during their trip to Russia that she woke her folks up at 4AM to talk about it. Don't care, don't care, don't care.
But, after talking to Tom the Handyman, I care a lot more about the important stuff. Because he opened my eyes to issues I've only considered in passing. Here's a guy who is beating himself up for making a voting mistake last Election Day. Because, as a veteran who served his country in that debacle called the Vietnam Conflict, he is already reeling from the benefits that have been taken away from him since January. Because, as a health care technician, he is already seeing and hearing from people who are petrified about their future ability to care for themselves. Because, as an American who's been in combat, he fully knows all the ramifications of a passive international stance.
I listened to him for an hour as he alternated between wisdom and a faulty fill valve in my toilet tank. To test the mechanism, he flushed. And made a point.
"That's what I did with my vote last November."
For all the pundits and commentators and bloggers on the national scene, Tom the Handyman made the most salient points of all. Because his pain is real.
"Len, do you know the story about the Pied Piper of Hamelin?"
I know it. The kids blindly following sweet music to their ultimate doom.
Tom the Handyman was making his final point. And flushed one more time.
Dinner last night: Roast beef sandwich from Clementine's.