It's a dirty job (8/22 column)

A letter writer this week suggested reporters should leave their politics at home. Some days I pretend politics don’t exist. Then I wake up and realize I’m sitting in another council meeting.

Politics, according to my handy-dandy Webster’s dictionary, has several definitions. One is the art or science of government. I laugh at the idea of it being an art, but is science any better of a description? If it was a science, anyone should be able to perfect it with enough study and practice. Also, there would normally be one right answer. But that’s not the case. For example, Karl Rove. He’ll go down in history as a great campaigner but awful at policy. What kind of politician does that make him? Maybe politics is an art. For some it just comes naturally. Still, politics does take study and common sense. Charisma must be nurtured into leadership.

The second definition is the policies, activities and methods of a government or political party. This is pretty straight-forward and how most people define the word. The third, and what our letter writer was referring to, is one’s general political standpoint.

Let me level with you. I hate politics. I cringe when I see a press release from a politician on the office printer. I don’t watch the State of the Union address. I try to avoid the subject in my columns. I didn’t vote in the April election because I had no clue who was running for what in my township. I would much rather spend my evenings with my son and husband than sitting hunched over my note pad in a folding chair at the Abbotsford city hall.

Unfortunately, politics are an occupational hazard. I knew this when I signed up for the job in college. I had whole semesters on human geography, local, state and national politics, and media law. I spent a year as a reporter on campus where there were plenty of clashing politics. I knew what I was getting into, or so I thought. As a journalist in a small newspaper, I don’t get the luxury of ignoring politics. It’s a big part of my job to keep up with what’s going on at the local, county, state and national levels. Another job I don’t take particular pleasure in is occasionally writing editorials. I hate controversy and I’d rather crawl under a rock than debate government policy. But once again, an occupational hazard. Not only must I keep up with it, I also have to sometimes express an opinion on it.

The truth is I can’t leave politics at home because it’s part of my job, like it or not. Instead I have a strict policy about leaving my politics at work where they belong. Home is my escape. The last thing I want there is politics dirtying up the place.