RIP NOTA
We lost one of the great unsung heroes of America in the 20th century last week. So unsung in fact that he doesn’t even merit a Wikipedia entry which here in 21st century America indicates that you are a true nobody. Hell, I didn’t even know who he was until I read his obituary.
I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you fictitious regular readers out there that I am a dedicated reader of the New York Times obituaries. Not that I read them all start to finish of course; but I generally read the first few paragraphs of most of them to see why each person merited inclusion in this most lofty of American obituary sections. What I’ve found of course is that there isn’t a fixed criterion for this particular hall of fame. In fact I’ve read entire obituaries without figuring out why the hell the person was there. In any event, sometimes it pays off with a satori, a glimpse of reality, a full expression of the truth of our lives today. The obituary I’m about to talk about is one such revelation.
“L.D. Knox, 80. Tried to Give Voters a Choice” reads the headline. First paragraph, courtesy of the Associated Press:
“WINNSBORO, La. (AP) — Luther Devine Knox, a Winnsboro farmer and perennial candidate who tried to get “None of the Above” on ballots in Louisiana by legally adding it to his name, died Wednesday. He was 80.”
How do you like that? For years we’ve talked about voting for “the lesser of two evils” or just “holding your nose and pulling the lever”. This was a guy who went out and tried to do something about it. And where did it get him? Are there statues? Are there monuments? Is there even a school named after him? No sir. Nothing. Zip. Not even a goddamn Wikipedia entry. Our national media goes on and on about octomoms and Angelina Jolie and we lose possibly the greatest American political thinker of the 20th century and he only merits an AP obituary. The AP article didn't even have a picture, so we have no photographic record of this man. The guy next to him had a picture. Apparently "Terry Barr, 73, NFL Star With Lions" is worthy of a photo but our new hero was not. Doesn't that say it all? Somebody who played for the Detroit Lions, of all teams, gets a photo and Knox doesn't. Wow.
We move on with the article:
“It was during the 1979 race for governor that Mr. Knox, known as L. D., made None of the Above an additional middle name. His aim — allowing voters to call for a new election with new candidates by voting for “none of the above” — remained his main plank in subsequent elections.
“The people of this country have never had a free election,” he said in 1991. “We don’t have a right to reject candidates. We have to take the lesser of the evils.”
As one of nine candidates in the open primary in 1979, he contended the phrase should show up as his nickname. Louisiana’s secretary of state said no. By the time he had gone to court and legally changed his name it was too late to change the ballot, a state judge ruled.
David Treen won the primary and the election, becoming Louisiana’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction. Mr. Knox finished seventh in the primary.
Thereafter, he ran as a Democrat in many state and local elections, often abbreviating the name he took in 1979 as NOTA.
“He just never could quite pull an election off,” Mayor Jack Hammons of Winnsboro said Thursday.”
He just never could quite pull an election off. Incredible, because I know many, many people who grouse about choices, who say “I always want to put “None of the above” on the ballot”. And yet, when push came to shove and Louisiana voters had the chance to make the big statement, to really get it done they let him come in seventh. Seventh! And though you didn’t have the Web as we know it today in 1979, you did have a fairly jaded national news media that could’ve spread the word and maybe some other right-thinking state would’ve adopted old L.D. It didn’t happen that way, alas. Instead Luther Devine Knox became a symbol of one of humanity’s major disconnects: What we think we want and what we say we want is often quite different from what we’re willing to do or, in fact what we actually want. In my line of work I see this all the time. People claim they want quality programming but they flock to the garbage. When polled, people claim they watch PBS, serious news shows, highbrow stuff. Stick a meter in their house and you find out they’re watching cop shows, bad sitcoms and bottom-of-the-barrel reality dreck. We are not who we think we are at all . Not one bit.
Despite that, there are some idealists and dreamers who over the years have tried to give us what we say we want. Knox was one of those. So Mr. L.D. NOTA Knox, I will raise a glass to you this weekend, wherever you are in the great beyond. You were a true American original.
I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you fictitious regular readers out there that I am a dedicated reader of the New York Times obituaries. Not that I read them all start to finish of course; but I generally read the first few paragraphs of most of them to see why each person merited inclusion in this most lofty of American obituary sections. What I’ve found of course is that there isn’t a fixed criterion for this particular hall of fame. In fact I’ve read entire obituaries without figuring out why the hell the person was there. In any event, sometimes it pays off with a satori, a glimpse of reality, a full expression of the truth of our lives today. The obituary I’m about to talk about is one such revelation.
“L.D. Knox, 80. Tried to Give Voters a Choice” reads the headline. First paragraph, courtesy of the Associated Press:
“WINNSBORO, La. (AP) — Luther Devine Knox, a Winnsboro farmer and perennial candidate who tried to get “None of the Above” on ballots in Louisiana by legally adding it to his name, died Wednesday. He was 80.”
How do you like that? For years we’ve talked about voting for “the lesser of two evils” or just “holding your nose and pulling the lever”. This was a guy who went out and tried to do something about it. And where did it get him? Are there statues? Are there monuments? Is there even a school named after him? No sir. Nothing. Zip. Not even a goddamn Wikipedia entry. Our national media goes on and on about octomoms and Angelina Jolie and we lose possibly the greatest American political thinker of the 20th century and he only merits an AP obituary. The AP article didn't even have a picture, so we have no photographic record of this man. The guy next to him had a picture. Apparently "Terry Barr, 73, NFL Star With Lions" is worthy of a photo but our new hero was not. Doesn't that say it all? Somebody who played for the Detroit Lions, of all teams, gets a photo and Knox doesn't. Wow.
We move on with the article:
“It was during the 1979 race for governor that Mr. Knox, known as L. D., made None of the Above an additional middle name. His aim — allowing voters to call for a new election with new candidates by voting for “none of the above” — remained his main plank in subsequent elections.
“The people of this country have never had a free election,” he said in 1991. “We don’t have a right to reject candidates. We have to take the lesser of the evils.”
As one of nine candidates in the open primary in 1979, he contended the phrase should show up as his nickname. Louisiana’s secretary of state said no. By the time he had gone to court and legally changed his name it was too late to change the ballot, a state judge ruled.
David Treen won the primary and the election, becoming Louisiana’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction. Mr. Knox finished seventh in the primary.
Thereafter, he ran as a Democrat in many state and local elections, often abbreviating the name he took in 1979 as NOTA.
“He just never could quite pull an election off,” Mayor Jack Hammons of Winnsboro said Thursday.”
He just never could quite pull an election off. Incredible, because I know many, many people who grouse about choices, who say “I always want to put “None of the above” on the ballot”. And yet, when push came to shove and Louisiana voters had the chance to make the big statement, to really get it done they let him come in seventh. Seventh! And though you didn’t have the Web as we know it today in 1979, you did have a fairly jaded national news media that could’ve spread the word and maybe some other right-thinking state would’ve adopted old L.D. It didn’t happen that way, alas. Instead Luther Devine Knox became a symbol of one of humanity’s major disconnects: What we think we want and what we say we want is often quite different from what we’re willing to do or, in fact what we actually want. In my line of work I see this all the time. People claim they want quality programming but they flock to the garbage. When polled, people claim they watch PBS, serious news shows, highbrow stuff. Stick a meter in their house and you find out they’re watching cop shows, bad sitcoms and bottom-of-the-barrel reality dreck. We are not who we think we are at all . Not one bit.
Despite that, there are some idealists and dreamers who over the years have tried to give us what we say we want. Knox was one of those. So Mr. L.D. NOTA Knox, I will raise a glass to you this weekend, wherever you are in the great beyond. You were a true American original.
Comments
You know, there's a paragraph up there in the middle of this here essay that is eerily reminiscent of the kind of crap that's constantly rolling around in my head. Please stop, you're creeping me out.
Oh yeah, and why do you keep referring to me as fic-tit-ious? That's not very nice.