Jun 10, 2008 4 min read

I get the biggest kick out of some of the dreams I have. Several nights ago, or maybe I should say in the tiny hours of the pre-dawn day, I once more took off on a flight of fantasy. No, I wasn’t literally flying unassisted.

I was, reluctantly, the governor of Pennsylvania.

Anyone who knows me is aware that I’m about as political as a fence post. That’s why this dream was so odd.

I was governor for about three years, in my dream, before I actually decided to accept the job. I kept telling everyone that I didn’t want to be governor. I avoided all politicians, reminding each one that sought me out that I did not intend to serve. I went about my own business, ignoring all who pressed me to step up.

But then I had a change of heart. I figured since I was governor, I ought to do something about the sorry conditions in the state. I immediately got with my advisors, asking them if it was too late to take the oath of office, to be sworn in as the state’s highest elected official.

“Well, we don’t know. After all, it has been three years since you were elected,’ one replied.

“Well, what’s been happening to the state all that time, and my salary as governor?’ I asked.

“There’s a committee that’s been handling things and the money has been going into an escrow account,’ I was told.

Remember, this is all a dream.

“Well, let’s check the constitutionality of it. I mean to be governor. I have things I’m going to do,’ I said.

What were those things I was dreaming of doing?

First off, I was going to eliminate the state personal income tax. Second, I was going to do away with the sales tax. And, next, I was going to finish off property taxes once and for all. I also planned on cutting the size of the 250-plus member legislature by about 80 percent to turn it into a more wieldy body.

Oh, I knew there’d be opposition. And don’t ask me how I planned to pay for all the services the state delivers. I just knew, in my dream, that what I was planning to do was correct and I’d have no problem winning the approval of the people and a second term in office.

I saw myself rushing around the capitol building in Harrisburg, meeting with various aides to get the ball rolling. I even saw some old friends, whom I had to slough off because I was so busy. I didn’t even have time to tell them I was the governor.

So, where did this dream come from?

Earlier in the same week, my lovely wife and I watched a PBS show about Harry S. Truman, a former U.S. president. It emphasized how he did not want to be president. Later, however, he started to enjoy the job and successfully ran for a term of his own (he was vice president when Franklin D. Roosevelt died).

Combine that with the huge amount of our paychecks that go for taxes (about 40 percent), and I clearly understood what spawned the release of that nocturnal imagining from my subconscious.

The only thing I can’t figure out is why I didn’t plan to cut gasoline prices. That’s something else that spikes my blood pressure every time I pull up to a gas pump.

But what really baffled me was why, as governor, I didn’t do something about getting the garbage picked up regularly in Uniontown. After all, I’ve had one pickup in the last five weeks (just like many of my neighbors) and there’s a pile of decomposing brush in front of my home.

I think I should have at least sent out the National Guard or the Boy Scouts or something like that.

Maybe I was planning on attacking those issues in my second term?

I guess I’ll just have to dream on.

Have a good day.

(P.S. In last week’s column I mentioned two women who were involved in staging a street party where we live. I thanked Diana and Erin, but, according to another flyer slipped through our mail slot after the event, Adrienne was also involved. Thanks to her, too.)

James Pletcher Jr. is Herald-Standard business editor. He can be reached at 724-439-7571 or by e-mail at begin jpletcher@heraldstandard.com jpletcher@heraldstandard.com end

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