Not Uncommon

Iron County, Michigan, is not uncommon. It
is like many other small communities around
the world where the many permit the few
aggressive individuals to rule.

I wanted to do a piece on the Nobel Prizes
given what's happened this year with the
Peace Prize. The sensible commentaries are
everywhere already and I feel duplication
of those is unnecessary. Obama has come
clean about this one thing and said that
he didn't deserve the prize, leaving nothing
unspoken given the absurdity of that
situation.

But I thought to look at the rest of this
year's awards, and noticed the following in
the Literature award for this year:

"Müller made her debut with the collection
of short stories Niederungen (1982), which
was censored in Romania. Two years later,
she published the uncensored version in
Germany and, in the same year, Drückender
Tango in Romania. In these two works,
Müller depicts life in a small, German-
speaking village and the corruption,
intolerance and repression to be found
there."

http://tinyurl.com/yer4e7d

2009 literature award is made to Herta Müller.

The problem in Romania was fixed by the
overthrow of the totalitarian regime. What
will fix similar problems in Iron County?
Do we need to replace our entire political
structures and fill the positions with
people who have the community's interests
as their guide? Shouldn't we be doing that
anyway?

Bill Vajk