SWITCHING POLITICAL PARTIES and the OCCUPY movement

SWITCHING political parties is not as unusual as we may think. Since the beginning, twenty-one senators have changed parties while in office. Of late, Harry Byrd, Strom Thurmond, Joseph Lieberman and Arlen Spector.

Texas republican Rick Perry won his first state election in 1984 as a conservative democrat. Partly for political reasons, he announced in 1989 that he was switching to the Republican Party. Still, he claimed he was the same as he had always been, but now he has an R beside his name instead of a D. Still, his home town never forgave him.

Hillary Clinton was reared in a conservative political background and was once president of the Wellesley College Young Republicans. She was an ardent volunteer for republican Barry Goldwater. But the civil rights movement as well as other political dirty tricks made her realize that although she was a conservative in her mind, her heart was liberal. She was a democrat by the time she met Bill Clinton.

Ronald Reagan was an active democrat until he changed his mind in 1962 and became a republican. He had already been actively supporting Richard Nixon. Reagan felt the democrats had left him by veering away from individual rights toward a more collectivist state of mind.

We can wonder what his opinion would have been if he could have witnessed the Occupy Wall Street movement. Is Occupy for individual rights or collectivism? It seems to have elements of both. It is an insistent lightning rod for overdue changes, operating as a non-violent human collective.

Elna Nugent , Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, MA Nov.8, 2011

EVERY DAY we try to survive in a living zone of opposites. This is never more obvious than in the fields of politics or religion.

YET NO MATTER how outrageous,irrational, or off-the-deep-end these extremes may appear,they are essential in the scheme of things. They define boundaries that expand or contract with the times. These boundaries help us gauge where we stand between A and Z.

PERSONS WHO ARE IN the middle are often called moderates or centrists. Many tend to be cool, cerebral and rational. Most like to carefully consider both sides of an issue. Since they reject impulse, they take their time to decide and are accused of vacillation. If they are not called wafflers, they are called fence-sitters or Independents.They are most likely an Independent majority who find value on both sides.

MANY middle grounders find themselves placed in civic positions where lucid judgment and mediation are urgently sought. They seem to be able to hear both sides, try to integrate opinions, and allow sanity to prevail.

PERHAPS SANITY isn't warm and fuzzy, but I get a shocking high from it. It is so rare it makes me feel giddy. I am inspired by it. Perhaps it is hard to recognize and needs defining. Those so-called sane ones are not clueless. They are seldom harassed by the press and most probably live their lives in relative peace.

NEWS MEDIA feels it must chase the extreme stories as well as the breaking news of the day. It makes us read and watch. Every day such stories administer mini-shock treatments to the masses, rousing multitudes from stupor and haze. The news has become a daily negative adrenaline rush or drug. The public can't get enough of it. The question is "What works in the long haul?

Elna Nugent, Lenox, Ma

The above pieces were published as a Letter to the Editor in the Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, MA

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