By Penny Mickelbury
I’m a writer. A story teller. The people of my stories—the trajectories of their lives and the places they live—this is my reality when I’m writing. I live with these people in their world, and I find it preferable to a world in which people take seriously the likes of Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Paul and Santorum. I find it annoying when people urge, and often demand, that I respond to a Gingrich or Romney utterance, then chafe when my response is, “I don’t care.” Here’s why: I wouldn’t vote for anybody in that pack of jackals if they were the only onces running, so I have no interest in what they think, say or do. Nothing they think, say or do surprises me. Romney says he doesn’t think about really poor people and that’s news? Nobody who has a numbered Swiss bank account thinks about really poor people. Gingrich’s ex-wife dissed him and that’s news? People with three spouses is likely to be dissed by at least one of them. Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, Paul, and anybody else running in that pack is a sexist, racist and homophobic and that’s not news! It’s who they are and they’re proud of it. It would be news if they demonstrated behavior to the contrary, but since that’s not bloody likely, I’ll return to story-telling and the people therein who also don’t care any more about the Romneys and Gingriches of their world than jackal pack care about them.