Flip-flops and Jim Jeffords

Be odd.\n That was going to be my advice for the first week of school. An alternative to all of the wholesome "go to class, go to office hours, go to the Health Center, and while you're at it stop by Career Development Center" sermons that are delivered from classroom pulpits, resident assistants and your parents. \nAll of the aforementioned is great advice. But as I was walking to class, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be great if everyone took a chance this year." If people started showing up at marimba concerts and folk dancing at the Union? If people wrote great papers about the nexus of themes in 'Days of Our Lives' and Dostoevsky? If professors decided to lead their class outdoors and wake them up with a jog around Ballantine!?" \nAnd then I remembered my shoes. My shoes and Jim Jeffords. \nFirst my shoes. . . I always seem to catch on to trends as they are dying. So yesterday, when I realized how sweaty August was going to be, I decided to store my shoes, and run to the store and buy some flip-flops. \nFlip-flops. . . beach sandals. . . the attire of my youthful summer, now made popular by Madison Avenue's brightest minds. So I dragged myself into that purveyor of performance fleece, that bearer of board shorts. . . the TV-commercial refuge of Morgan Fairchild and that strange woman with the heavy black glasses. . . and the depository for clothes that couldn't quite fall into the Gap. \nI listened to the Old Navy sound system blast the one Nina Hagen song we all know. \nBut alas, their stock of "two dollah, no hollah" flip-flops had been ravaged by the summer crowds, more alert to what's hip. I could have bought some fuchsia sandals, or an attractive hot pink pair. But I have some dignity.\nSo I ran around the mall, doubling over in shock at the prospect of paying 10 dollars for some Malaysian rubber handiwork. Finally, I walked, no, ran to KMart. KMart. Blue light specials. Childhood memories of a South as yet polluted by Wally-World. \nAnyway, I ran to the back. To the shoe section. To a quandary. Because the only decent sandals carried by "big red K, little blue m-a-r-t" were emblazoned with the following logo: "Baywatch Gear." \nUh-oh.\nAs much as I respect David Hasselhoff's acting career (especially the work he did opposite of a talking car in "Nightrider"), I was a bit worried about buying shoes emblazoned with the name of a show, the cultural contribution of which is dwarfed by the good it's actresses did for the silicone industry. But it was late, I didn't care, and I assumed no one would notice the tiny tag. \nUntil I walked to class today. \nAnd as the cheap rubber flipped and flopped against the pavement, fear gripped my heart. What if someone does notice? What if I'm sitting in class and my shoe slips off, and one of my professors (the one who addressed the Modern Language Association, or the one who spoke at the Folger Library) sees that my shoes carry the "Baywatch" brand.\n And if this is how I feel when I'm wearing an embarrassing pair of sandals, imagine what it must have felt like for Jim Jeffords, senator of Vermont, to walk down the halls of the Senate after shifting the balance of power? Remember Jeffords? The one who decided that George W. Bush's agenda was too extreme, too radically right? The one who was called an opportunist when he declared independency from his own party? The one who has been shunned by his former friends, and half of his current colleagues? The one whose principled commitment to centrism has made him the object of hatred, and raided the ire of Republicans in his home state of Vermont?\nIn a town that demands party loyalty, and looks askance at anyone who walks out of step; In a Washington D.C. that preaches innovation and originality, while it practices segregation, exclusion, and cultural policing, Jim Jeffords decided to do something odd. In doing so, he stirred up some trouble, disturbed the powerful and reminded everyone that loyalty to principal far outweighs loyalty to party. \nAnd he is paying for it.\nBe odd. It's worth it. I like my funny shoes, and Jim Jeffords is my hero.\nBut be ready to pay the price.