Are Politics 'All Local'?

As I am writing this I am one of the remaining 43% of unfortunate residents of Newtown with a power outage due to Hurricane Irene.  It could be worse - I have a generator, our road is passable and the weather has been beautiful.

What frustrates me most is the lack of presence of utility workers from our power company.  I am aware that Newtown and the greater Danbury Area are not the only towns without electrical power.  We, generally speaking, cannot select our utilities companies.  Sure, we have telephone options now, whether it be cell phone or landline.  We can select the least important: television utilities between the antenna, cable, satellite, internet or fiber optic.  We, unfortunately, are at the mercy of a virtual monopoly for our electricity supplier. 

I know many good people are diligently doing their best to restore services as soon as possible.  I thank them and especially the lineman and workers from around the country that came to Connecticut to help.

When I checked Facebook and Twitter and confirmed the shocking update this past Tuesday that our power would not be restored until the estimate of midnight “September 8” I went through a whole range of emotions.  I resolved to write about it.  What else could I really do?  I can’t say I am switching to another supplier.

What I can do and I remind all of you that we can hold our politicians accountable because in our Republic we elect people to represent us.  We can hold the politicians accountable.  It is analogous to high paid professional athletes underperforming individually or collectively as a team and the manager or coach ultimately getting fired.  The players aren’t held accountable for their lack of production. 

Remember on Election Day, November 8 if you were pleased on how CL&P performed.