"You have sound and deep understanding of politics in Savannah," he muses while taking a sip from his beer. "Tybee? ... Not so much.""I'll take that," I reply. "Tybee was home away from politics. I never wanted to get involved."
"A wise decision," he concludes. "Savannah politics is vicious stuff. On Tybee it's only during elections that people get mean."
I think that's true ... for the most part.
It's true too that I understand politics and very well know my way around the Halls and the processes of the City of Savannah, Chatham County Commission, Chamber of Commerce (Believe me! They Count!), Georgia General Assembly/Governor's Office/Departments of State Government and Congress/Departments of National Government.
I've never been to the White House but my wife has.
I did camp out with protesters in Lafayette Square across the street from the White House for several days!
Ronald Reagan was the resident across the street and I sat in one of a hundred or so white tents occupied by homeless people.
The tents were the brain child of Mitch Synder, America's first advocate for people without homes. Looking like a Hippy with a long droopy mustache, olive green Army shirt and faded jeans, Mitch always seemed stoned. He was hard to not like ... unless you were Ronald Reagan.
Mitch drove Reagan nuts.
The President believed in pulling yourself up by one's own bootstraps and Mitch visually demonstrated there are hundreds of thousands who don't have boot straps ... or boots.
When all was said and done, Mitch won the battle but lost the war.
Reagan capitulated allocating millions of dollars to house homeless people.
It didn't matter though. It takes more than a house to end homelessness though few knew it at the time.
Mitch hung himself in the housing that Reagan paid for.
Reagan liked spending money and spent more than any other President up until then, mostly growing Government.
Both men leave their political legacy ... Government's bigger and more obtrusive than ever before and we've never had as many homeless people as we currently do.
Which leads me back to not being involved politically on Tybee.
I'm not sure that's true.
It's just that I'm used to looking at Government from a leaky tent in the rain and I really believe you see it more as it really is this way.
