The ROC outsider

I almost met Susan John today.

I opened my front door on the way to go to the chiropractor and out floated a flyer with her name, photo and a handwritten note. "Sorry I missed you - Susan John," it said.

Huh. I wonder if she wrote that herself, I thought. If she was actually here going door to door? Then I looked up and there was a woman across the street talking to my neighbor. She looked familiar. She looked remarkably like the lady on the flyer I was picking up...

So I waved to my neigbor, Julie, and Susan John waved back at me. And, as it was 4:58 pm and my 5 pm chiropractic appointment was a good 15-minute drive away, I hopped in my car and sailed away.

Kevin tells me that Susan John got the best score out of all our New York State politicians on her environmentally-friendly voting record. So that's a good thing.

Kevin also gave me a flyer for the Green Party, which has Malachy McCourt on its roster. The same one who was quoted in today's D&C as saying:

"Let me point out that insurance is against something happening, so to call it health insurance is pretty dopey as I have never insured myself against health although some presidents have insured themselves against truth and intelligence.

"So let's begin by correctly calling it sickness insurance. My position is simply that all citizens should be insured by the state for every illness.

"No profit should ever be made on another person's misery and no human being in our state should ever be afraid to go to the physician or hospital and fear bankruptcy as a result of crushing bills.

"No profits from mangled bodies of our people or from mental illness or from mental retardation or depression.

"This will be called socialism, communism, anarchism, etc. I call it humanism."

Um, OK. "Mangled bodies of our people" ? "Sickness insurance" ? I'm all for the idea of universal health care and I'm not sure that I'm either a Democrat OR a Republican, but I'd prefer to vote for someone who might possibly, in some small way, be taken seriously.

That said, I have little idea who to vote for. The bigger positions seem easier to decide somehow. But I have no idea who's even running for the other offices - like judges and town clerks and people that can possibly have a greater impact on my day-to-day life.

I guess I'll poke around the NYS Board of Elections web site.

Is there an easier way to get this info that I'm just not getting? I'm 29, educated, and apparently clueless.