October 08, 2010 09:50 PM UTC

Fountain Pens

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• by: JO

(Here’s a deft bit of whimsy to lighten up a day the abuse level is getting a bit too high.  But will somebody please answer the question: “What is a fountain pen?” – promoted by Voyageur)

“Keep in touch.” Good advice for anyone, but especially for social leaders.

Maureen Dowd the other day reported on attending a seminar called Get Motivated! in which Colin Powell was one of several speakers. His advice:

Be nice to the little people, the ones who clean your office and park your car. Write thank you notes on 4-by-6-inch cards. “I write with a fountain pen,” he said. “Never a Sharpie. Never a ballpoint pen.”

Rudi Guiliani had this to say:

Rudy Giuliani began with a few choice words about Al Gore and global warming, before moving on to his pearls of wisdom. The first one was: “You have got to have a computer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10…

On the same day that Dowd’s column appeared, The New York Daily News reported:

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele doesn’t know what the minimum wage is, and he doesn’t think it’s “relevant.” During … a segment about tension the Tea Party has caused within the GOP, Steele was asked point-blank … name the minimum wage. He responded by laughing.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new…

Of course, we remember that John McCain was apparently computer- and internet-illiterate until, or during, the 2008 presidential campaign.

I don’t mean to be picking on right-wing political figures here, or even on politicos. The other day I asked a medico to estimate the cost of a procedure he recommended that was carried out in his own office; he was off by a factor of more than three. And even though I went to the grocery store the other day specifically with the purpose of meeting middle class folks and understanding their finances, I admit that I didn’t meet anyone much less discuss their economic circumstances. Here it is October, past the barbecue season, and I have yet to have a candid discussion with friends and neighbors about their incomes, their expenses, their savings, the value of their stock portfolios, et cetera. Could this help explain why some folks are pissed off when the government says the way to solve the health care crisis is to require folks to buy health insurance, folks who might be striving hard to pay existing expenses much less something new?

But back to General Powell. Odd that he should be appearing in such dubious circumstances. However, when was the last time you used a fountain pen to write a thank-you to one of the “little people”? When was the last time you wrote a thank-you note to anyone for anything (emails don’t count). When was the last time you used a fountain pen for anything?

IF, as the above anecdotes suggest, political leaders (and others, including purveyors of medical services) are so far out of touch with the dollars and sense of Americans in that broad swath described as the “middle class,” can we expect solutions to be forthcoming?

Write me an answer, but don’t use a fountain pen, please!