Today, on my walk across campus to buy a bunch of tape for Octopus send-outs, a man holding a Ron Paul sign was handing out dum-dums. I appreciate free dum-dums. The dum-dums had Ron Paul information attached to them. The dum-dums then weren't exactly free, but a little more like a sneaky trick. He dropped his bag of dum-dums and it was windy. The dum-dums went everywhere. Maybe about 100 of them. Nobody stopped to help pick them up. Some people stepped on some of the dum-dums. I stopped and helped. I feel that this gesture of mine was equal parts: my love for people especially in a time of minor tragedy (ultimately a selfish gesture perhaps because helping makes me feel good about myself) and my love for democracy. I was thinking about democracy while I was picking up the dum-dums. I was looking at the flavor of each one. Here's a pineapple one. A banana one. I love democracy. I love it like I would love a twin brother. A brother I love as much as myself. A brother who has got caught up in meth, lives in my basement, and steals change from my children's piggy bank.