Axar.az presents an article "The Poetry Of Politics" by John Samuel Tieman.

Part 5, Vote Old Hippie

Readers of my column know of my interest in American politics. What you might not know is my long-standing interest in municipal politics. I have decided to run for City Council in my home, University City, Missouri, an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis. I live in the Second Ward.

My regular readers are also accustomed to seeing an essay. What follows is a diary. I've purposely left out, or changed, the names of neighbors who are not well-known public figures.

Some folks know national politics, some state politics. But what does municipal democracy look and feel like? To answer that, I will chronicle each week my bid, win or lose, for a four-year term in office. This retired teacher still likes to teach – And learn! -- civics.

7 December 2023

And now I plan. I've got in all my paperwork for my candidacy. I need to find a treasurer and set up a campaign account. A lot of folks have said they will volunteer time and money. I need to purchase signs, fliers, buttons. I need to make plans for campaigning. But for now, I wait. April is still a way off.

I've started regularly attending council meetings. I've attended many in the past, but now I go to all of them. Council meetings are at times boring. I've been encouraged to attend in- person more meetings. At one point, I noted to one councilman that I do watch them on YouTube. ''There's a singular advantage to YouTube. The fast-forward button.'' Despite that advantage, I am attending in-person from now on.

8 December 2023

Allison has agreed to be my treasurer. I am so pleased. She's a prominent citizen, knows everyone, and has great political instincts. Her late husband was on the council for decades.

So we plan. There's no overwhelming hurry. The election is in April. Nonetheless, as I said above – meetings with voters, fliers and lawn signs, mailings, organizing volunteers, raising money. All that and one major thing I want to do, that I need to do. I need to listen. Just listen to people. But, as I said, there's no overwhelming hurry. For the moment, I have time to reflect, time to let my soul breathe.

10 December 2023

You want political theory. Here's mine. In politics, you can find both the practical and the mysterious in the neighborhood and in the neighbor.

The practical is self-apparent. Someone wants a stop sign, a speed bump, a pothole filled. But when I listen, really listen, as I listen to my neighbors, I stand in amazement. We use the word “amaze” so often that we've lost the feel of the word, meaning a wonderment coupled with a kind of reverence. I am amazed at our diversity, adaptability, and all of that with this unity we call home. For all our differences in language and culture and race and religion and class, we're much more alike than we are different. Lofty as it sounds, it has very practical consequences. Helping a whole neighborhood with recycling and helping Sally specifically – that's the mystery – a person, a neighborhood, I find wonder in the individual, and in this mysterious organism we call the neighborhood. I find wonder in the most ordinary events, a hidden meaning, a secret understanding of life that I know I will never understand, and that I will never stop trying to understand. I can know and help with a solution, that pothole for example, and, at the same time, find mystery and awe in that which makes us persevere, and that which binds.

If you think this vision is unworkably abstract, think again. In a setting like the council, it expresses itself, as just one example, in this practical skill – to honor someone even as you oppose them. To vote “No” on their proposal, and, right after that vote, to make plans with them for lunch next Tuesday. Anyone, who doesn't have that skill, shouldn't be in this business.

Sadly, in U. City in the immediate past, there was a lot of public incivility. Homophobia, for example. Our mayor is openly gay. When he ran for office, the neighborhood suffered homophobic phone calls denouncing the candidate. Such bitter battles, thank God, are largely over. Nonetheless, the problem is far from over. As I said at a meeting the other day, ''When you whack the mole, the mole is still there, only now you can't see it.''

11 December 2023

Old hippy that I am, I remember when we used to talk about love in public life. When did we stop talking about love? Somehow it got reduced to patriotism. Patriotism is fine. I'm a war veteran. I fly a flag on my house. But I fear that, for many, patriotism equates to a narrow nationalism. Without a broader sense of love, indeed without a love of humanity, patriotism is a thin thing.

What does this mean practically? Representative democracy is not about a powerful leader doing his or her singular will. No, representative democracy is about a delegate in dialogue with an empowered community.

12 December 2023

I always ask myself, “Am I asking the right question?”

I sometimes think politics is not about answers. It's about questions. Solutions begin in questions. If you frame the right question, the solution follows as surely as the sunflower follows the sunlight. That solution in its turn catapults you into the next question, and the next solution, and the next question, and on and on. Such dialogue is the life of representative democracy.

13 December 2023

When I was knocking on doors, a young woman mentioned bike paths. She even gave me references. This has sparked in me an entire rethinking that is not simply about being bike- friendly or pedestrian-friendly. It's about being everything-other-than-car-friendly. I'm not advocating getting rid of cars. That's impossible. But we have to rethink this city. We have to rethink our environment. I can't get out of my mind this city street I saw in Europe. Right outside of the homes, there's a sidewalk. On the other side of the sidewalk is a bike path. Then there is a grassy island. Then there's a public transportation lane. Only then is there a lane for cars. Cars, to be clear, are one way to move along this road. But one. Just one.

14 December 2023

For those who think there are no lessons to be taken from a writer's life into the political sphere, there's this. One personal danger for the widely published writer is the presumption that you're smarter than everyone else. Sometimes you're smarter than some other people. Most of the time, you're just louder than everyone else.

15 December 2023

I was this afternoon notified by the City Clerk that my application for candidacy was approved by the St. Louis County Board Of Election Commissioners. The letter even addressed me as “Candidate Tieman”.

It's one thing to fantasize about the official bit, even to know it's going to happen. It's a very different set of emotions when it happens.

16 December 2023

I just got a ticket for running a stop sign. I didn't make a rolling stop so much as I made a driving hesitation. Decades ago, I read that 80 to 90% of all laws that directly impact the citizens are state and local. I'm not sure how someone quantifies that. But a $96 fine felt like quantity enough for tonight.

Next week, Part 6, “Vote Old Soldier”