Beat Me To It

It's that time of year again, when from Main Street to Wall Street, we emerge from our holiday staycations and examine our collective carbon footprints.

Or, you know, not so much.

Lake Superior State University has issued its list of banned words again. Most of what I wrote above is on it.

As I might have said when living in Arkansas, I was fixin' to do a post about the Wall Street/Main Street (Canadian: Bay Street/Main Street) "thing" myself. The essense of my message: Stop. Please. Now. Possibly the dyad was clever the first time anyone said it, decades ago, for a completely different recession. But now, stop.

I think that phrase bothers me more than most of the rest of the delights from LSSU, but one other merits comment. I agree that "First Dude," while possibly appropriate for the spouse of the president of the local skateboard club, is not at all appropriate for the spouse of a candidate for U.S. vice president. And my response to that is possibly linked to eight years of the Frat Boy President. Fortunately, the term now has the opportunity to pass quietly into oblivion.

But back to the battle of the Streets: I dislike the Wall-Bay Street/Main Street comparison because it's not particularly accurate. Wall-Bay Street and Main Street are neither so far apart nor so close together. For one thing, Wall-Bay Street is NOT synonymous with the economy. In either country.

And although it's meant to, Main Street actually does NOT represent local economies, either. These days, local companies more likely to have addresses like "One Innovation Way, Building 29," or "Three Four Five Research Park Drive, Suite 1450."

And another thing, and this is my main irritation with this phrase: Us "regular folk," who aren't like those supposed bazillionaires working on Wall-Bay Street, don't exist only in relation to Main Street (or what is meant by that phrase), either. Us regular folk are fully rounded human beings, who interact with each other, and money (as well as pizza and the weather) in a variety of ways. We don't wear financial goggles all day, every day--although these days, it's hard not to, since that's all that anyone in power ever talks about. Still, if pressed, we would acknowledge that not all of our activities relate to money.

Instead, we would recognize our activities relate to each other--actual people--and sometimes involve money. Probably in much the same way as the activities of those who work on Wall-Bay Street. Like us, they likely go home to families, and laugh and cry, and cook or order in or go out to eat, and curl or play hockey and wish something other than reruns were on TV.

We--the people on all four streets in both countries--are more than this shorthand. If policymakers remember that, they are likely to make better policies that do more than react to short-term fear. If we can remember that, we are likely to enjoy our lives in 2009 more than we will if we focus only on what we lack, instead of what we have.