PLATFORM : Who’s Ordinary?

Am I the only one who bristles when our politicians refer to us as “ordinary” Americans? Are they trying to convey empathy and solidarity? Are we supposed to feel understood when they call us “ordinary?” If so, I think they’ve miscalculated, because in my book, the word is downright insulting.

I don’t feel ordinary and I don’t see a lot of ordinary people around me. Is the mother down the street raising a disabled child ordinary? Is a teacher who uses her grief over her brother’s death from AIDS to help her students understand AIDS ordinary? Are the hospice workers who provide comfort to the terminally ill ordinary? Is the kind neighbor who helped me find my dog ordinary? I think not. To me, they’re all quite extraordinary.

And how are we to decide who’s ordinary and who is not? Are there invisible lines that separate the “ordinary” from the “not ordinary?” What are the criteria and how many are there? Is someone going to define them?

If we’re ambitious and want to move up the “ordinary” ladder, how do we do it and how will we know when we’ve arrived?

Which brings up perhaps the most perplexing question: Where do the politicians fall on the scale of ordinariness?