Lobby Day

Today I had to go up to Albany to visit a state agency I'd like to work with, and this actually does have to do with computers. And even education.

Much of what we have been reading has been in computers and how they have an inpact on the communications process, especially McLuhan and his idea of the global village. We've also discussed the idea of certain media being more democratic and acesssible than others. Sure all good in theory, and then you come face to face with Tuesday in Albany, which is Lobby Day.

You have to understand Lobby Day by understanding Albany. It's a port city and transportation hub that almost no ships visit and where the railroad station isn't even in the city. It's a university town where the students are all safely tucked away out of town in a virtual city. All that really seems to happen there is the mechanics of state. Sometime in the early sixties through the seventies Nelson Rockefeller built a huge central administrative complex or "mall" that looks like something that should be in East Germany, North Korea or Romania. People scurry underground because the plaza is a windswept mess that really has no convenient access. It's an urban nightmare, but Goverment is there through and through.

Well, back to Lobby Day, which I just discovered. The train from New York was packed. Almost no seats. The parking lots full beyond belief. And lobbyists all over the place, as thick as fleas.

In Albany, where people in power never leave and the typical Assemblyman or Senator only has a 2% chance of losing an election the only way to get anything is to go there and press the flesh. It's pretty shocking actually. Forget e-mail, phones, even letters. You have to be there to do business, buy people lunch (in terrible restaurants) and I hate to think what else. Forget the Internet, except to order the train tickets...