Twenty, Twelve, Ten, Eight, Six, Four...

I love role-play. I love fantasy. My real website is www.dragontayl.com. My stories are there. It’s also where I host role-playing games on Neverwinter Nights (nwn.bioware.com). Role-playing is my main hobby, almost to the exclusion of all others.

Role-play comes in many flavors. There’s the “I wonder what I would be like if I were ninety pounds of tempered elf amazingly incredible with bow and daggers, who could cast spells, couldn’t eat grains, had five nose rings, and was named Flibertygibbit Greballion of the Green Leaf.” You ‘go out’ with a bunch of friends, laugh, show your superiority over impressive monsters (or die trying), find the best punch lines, and just have a blast.

There’s the “If I were transposed into a fantasy character, what would I want to be? How would I act? What could I do?” You create an alter ego, typically the best of what you have to offer, wrestling with the dark inner secrets you don’t expose to just anyone, and write a tragic tale (though it can have a good ending, it is rarely comedy) with epic battles both within and without.

There’s the “I would like to try something a little different, see how well I can role play this kind of personality and this kind of adventurer.” You put together a party of friends and delve deep into mystery (often wonderful comedy) and explore how you think that kind of person would react.

For me, if you play sports, I end up with the “goalie” position in role-play. I’m not coordinated enough to play even goalies in real sports, though I love to play ice hockey (the term play is used very loosely here) and I enjoy playing softball-baseball, just stay with the concept here and don’t drag me off topic. I am the game master (in the classic grand pooh-bah of role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons, this is known as the Dungeon Master). Not only do I run the game, I create the games before hand. It’s a great challenge and a lot of fun. I am basically writing a storyline without the main characters – only the challenges and mysteries, and my friends come in and complete the story as they go by being the heroes (and often the plucky comic relief).

It is difficult to run the right balance – the challenges that should give people a few tense moments but not be so overwhelming that they feel fatalistic. It’s no fun if they are constantly saved by some higher power. The point of the game is to overcome challenges, perhaps down to your last resources, but to be able to do it in the end. But it’s a challenge I love. I can’t wait to see what my friends are going to do when they get to a certain place. I can’t wait to see their reaction when they come to a particularly interesting area – hopefully something they have never seen before, something that is fun and new and exciting.

So grab some Doritos, some thick, rich, sweet, frozen coffee (or if you prefer Mt. Dew or Dr. Pepper are more acceptable norms for this genre), pull out a fresh, blank sheet of lined paper. Buy yourself a set of wicked-cool looking dice of all different shapes. Sharpen your pencil and prepare to open your mind. I think I hear the clash of steel and the neighing of a warhorse. Surely it must be just over that grassy ridge you thought was the back of your couch.

The Electoral College.

There are few parts of our representative government that are as misunderstood as the Electoral College. When I was taught about this part of the process, I was told the Electoral College existed for two reasons. First, that there were too few people who understood issues back then, so you elected someone to go vote for you. Second, that communication and technology was not what it is, so a procedure for covering the miles needed to be adopted. These reasons are ludicrous when you get right down to it: this is the same era that turned out or founding fathers. Simply assuming that an ancestor is not as smart or capable as you is arrogant. Considering what they accomplished and the means they had it seems to me that as a whole they were more resourceful, more determined, more capable, and more impressive. Additionally, it can be presumed, whoever went to vote in the Electoral College, using whatever technology and transportation was available, could have simply brought the results of the state-wide election to the capitol.

We see a few states (Nevada, Maine, and soon Colorado I think) who have decided (or are deciding) that they should not have their electoral votes go “whole to one side or the other” but rather to split those votes based on the votes in their states. This is a watering down of the intent of the college, which I think is wrong (and I will explain it below) but it does not eliminate its effectiveness wholely.

So, why do I think the Electoral College is so important?

Our country is a whole nation. It is based on a diverse population, diverse politics, perspective, and industry. A great many of us know all too well the issues associated with life in a city. We know daily jobs, we know supermarkets, crime, police, sanitation, etc. A very few of us know any of the issues associated with farming. Or ranching. Or mining. Or providing this nation with wood. All we know is that the food ends up in the supermarket, is usually more expensive than we’d like, and someone else handles the details (including making sure that it meets certain standards). Most of these professions, crucial one might say, to the survival of our country, take up a great deal of space. That precludes the ability to set up a large city in those areas.

What this means is that the large cities are well represented in population, but they may not be well represented in essential professions. Who can claim we do not need food? Or wood? Or metal? Especially if you’re from the city?

The Electoral College gives a voice proportionate more to the true diversity of our nation than to the simple population of our nation. If only those issues that deal with the city were represented, the very support systems that allow those megalopolises to exist would collapse.

Additionally, the Electoral College performs another vital function: it inhibits the ability to brainwash concentrated populations so that pure numbers dictate your policies. We all understand market economics. Where there’s a market, there are people to buy things. Where there’s a bigger market, there are more people. A big city is full of people who are under the constant bombardment of today’s media – print, broadcast, or otherwise. Expression of ideas (right or wrong) there will simply have greater exposure. Manipulation of minds through misrepresented issues is therefore more feasible, and requires fewer resources or effort.

I know that it is purely politics when Senators (who themselves exist in a body designed to give voices disproportionate to population) claim they want to do away with the Electoral College. If the vote is split: popular goes one way, EC the other, partisans are going to be split based on how well that suited their hoped-for outcome. It is ironic that the so-called party of “diversity” is arguing against diversity in a body of the government that underscores diversity. I hope they never do away with this important institution. The fact is there are too many states who rely on it, and for the very good reasons I outlined above.

In the end it isn’t just about the number of voices, it’s about the diversity of our whole nation. Not just diversity in one neighborhood or one city or one state, but the whole nation. Just because you don’t do, or know how to do, or understand the issues revolving around a thing doesn’t mean that thing is unimportant. It could be the different between having a home filled with nice things (and food) and being killed by a neighbor because suddenly there are not enough resources to go around.