The kind of people we need in D.C.

Some weeks ago, I wrote about our yard guy who was apparently been picked up by ICE and transported to who knows where. Some private facility, holding tank, where no doubt someone in the private sector is making money.

Poor guy. Hard worker. Came over here as a kid, apparently never had a legit route to citizenship, leaving him easy pickings for ICE.

Other easy targets for ICE agents, Border Patrol include:

Roofers, farm workers, construction workers, motel maids, dishwashers, housekeepers, lawn maintenance workers, etc., AKA, the people who do our heavy lifting because too few “legal residents” are willing.

Meanwhile, the guy we now have cutting the grass is just what Washington D.C. (the House and the Senate) needs to better steer the nation’s economy in the direction that will help us, not hurt us.

The new guy is a special needs guy, intellectually, not physically. Lives with his brother (good for the brother) and wouldn’t harm a fly. If anything, it’s an effort to pay him a fair price vs. the low-ball figure that he charges our neighbors.

Throughout my life, it’s the special needs people who have made me wish things were different.

The Real Deal

Instead of the sociopaths who hold most elected positions in D.C., either borderline socios or full-blown psychos, what we need is a political party comprised of special needs people who wear their heart on their sleeve, usually smiling, out to help their neighbors, not cause them harm, pick their pocket, or rattle their world.

By “special needs,” I’m mainly talking about those whom people used to call “retarded” before the American public realized how insulting that word is not only for the people against whom it is directed, but their parents, siblings, grandparents, not to mention the many people who love and cherish them.

They may not score high on the IQ test, but when it comes to loving your fellow man, woman, it’s from this demographic that one will usually find the sort of people I wish we had more of, not less. Even though I know for their respective family, the journey isn’t easy. They can never live on their own, many of them, but that doesn’t mean they still are not of high value in this crazy world of ours, where screwing your fellow man has taken on new meaning.

In actuality, their learning curve may have been slow compared to the “normal” people who score well on tests, make high grades in school, but it’s their warmth, authenticity, and a lack of malice that feels so refreshing, especially when contrasted with the class of people one often finds elected to high office in D.C.

No Masks

Most people spend a lifetime building social masks. We learn to calculate how we might best present ourselves to the outside world, how to hide our true feelings, and weigh what we might gain or lose in each and every social interaction.

In other words, what’s best for us, not our neighbor.

This is why the crooks keep getting elected to high office — they learn what really matters (money and power) and screw the rest of us.

On the flip side, many individuals with intellectual disabilities operate with far fewer social filters. What you see is what you get. Most want to give, not take.

Their emotional responses tend to be direct and immediate. If they feel joy, warmth, or affection, they express it openly without worrying about what anyone might think.

That’s why when someone who is considered “slow” gives you a hug, it’s the real deal, not some phony sign of affection while they get ready to stab you in the back.

It’s a level of raw honesty that is rare in everyday adult life, and it feels so moving because it is entirely uncalculated.

And real. Now if we can just get more people from the “special needs” community to run for public office.

What a much better world that would be.

Peace and love, no BS.