There’s Much Ado About Our Political Sound and Fury

As an assignment for our high school English literature class, we once had to memorize as many consecutive lines as we could from any Shakespeare play.

Lo, these 25 years later, I remember virtually nothing of the 125 lines I memorized from “Macbeth” except for the phrase, “Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

As brilliant as the bard’s language sounded to me back then, little did I realize that the applications of those seven well-chosen words would be practically limitless in adult life.

So now we see much congratulatory backslapping and sighs of relief as the County Board of Supervisors rescinds the 4% pay raise it gave itself. Certain segments of the local population act as though they’ve struck a mighty blow for responsibility in government and citizen participation by saving the county what amounts to about $16,000.

Paul Revere rides again. In this case, the watchfulness of the citizens has resulted in a savings representing roughly four one-millionths of the current budget of $3.7 billion.

To paraphrase the political adage--a millionth here, a millionth there, pretty soon you’re talking real savings.

You’re right--it’s too early in the morning for sarcasm, but you read me correctly. I can’t muster much enthusiasm for the pay raise issue, nor for the board’s reversal. The dollars involved amount to chump change, and while the board clearly should have sensed that this wasn’t a good year to be handing out raises to itself, why the party because it reversed itself?

The false show of victory surrounding the board’s vote reminds me of another angry group of citizens that met a few months ago to protest a school district’s fee on playground maintenance. The tax was kind of a shifty maneuver to bring in some revenue, and some residents adamantly spoke against it at a school board meeting.

They spoke so fervently that you almost got the feeling they were “concerned citizens.” The school board backed down, and the fee issue went away. Then, as the board moved on to discuss the rest of the agenda, the concerned citizens vacated the room faster than if someone had discovered an ammonia leak.

Turned out they weren’t that concerned about school district business, after all.

Therein lies what’s troubling about the hype surrounding the pay issue.

This was no significant victory for an enlightened public. It’s merely reflective of the symbolism that dominates the current political scene.

Where was the public last May when the board tried to get approval for a new jail? Voter turnout was 17%. People running in special elections are lucky if 1 in 5 voters shows up at the polls.

Even at the general election last November, when Orange County voters had both Measure M, the local transportation issue, and a governor’s race, voter turnout was only 56%. While the county turnout was slightly higher than the statewide average, overall turnout was the lowest statewide in the last decade for a gubernatorial election.

Participatory democracy involves more than raising a ruckus when supervisors or congressmen want to raise their pay. Those are the easy issues, the ones that don’t involve much homework.

Where’s the same level of outcry--forget outcry; how about just plain interest--when the board is taking on the truly critical questions of the day--growth, health care, transportation. Opinions and placards are just as valid then as they are on the more simplistic matters of puny pay raises.

So, you’ll have to pardon me if I don’t toast the supposed victors in getting the board to give back what they never had in the first place.

All it has really done is give the supervisors a chance to say they’ve responded to their constituents, knowing that most of you won’t bother to stay informed on the meatier issues of the day.

Let those who saved the county the four one-millionths of the budget expenditure revel in their self-satisfied delusions of citizen involvement.

Meanwhile, because I remembered none of the lines from “Macbeth” that preceded the passage above, I thought I’d refresh my memory by looking them up:

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It’s in a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.