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Who Knew?

Who knew “that healthcare could be so complicated”?

Who knew that deportation edicts could cause chaos and inspire hate?

Who knew that experience matters?

Who knew that respect is useful?

Who knew that disrespectful words and actions could yield hateful words and actions, and threatening and criminal behavior?

Who knew that racism was institutional?

Who knew that misogyny is alive and well?

Who knew that ultra-nationalism and xenophobia would resurface?

Who knew that anti-semitism didn’t die with Hitler?

Who knew that one’s personal gender definition and sexual preference would threaten others?

Who knew that differences could strengthen us and elevate us?

Who knew that hate always lurks under the surface?

Who knew that the press is the enemy?

Who knew that public radio, television, schools, and bathrooms are threatening?

Who knew that National Parks are unAmerican and a waste?

Who knew that Climate Change is real?

Who knew that alternative facts were made up?

Who knew that facts are facts, and that they matter?

Who knew that wars were always won?

Who knew that friends and family loyalty would be a potential problem for governing the USA?

Who knew that Republicans would turn a blind eye to Russian interference in our election?

Who knew that business deals can be a conflict of interest with politics?

Who knew that Democrats could be so ineffective and uninspiring?

Who knew that the term “working class” often refers to white people?

Who knew that teachers matter?

Who knew that the arts are essential to education and humanity?

Who knew that the sciences are essential to education and humanity?

Who knew that health is a right, and an essential part of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Who knew that infrastructure would be so expensive?

Who knew that American-made would be costly?

Who knew that anyone, and any family in any and every community in the US can be afflicted by drugs and addiction?

Who knew that “The American Dream” was always a dream without consistent effort and reinforcement?

Who knew that cultural divisions would drive politics and governance?

Who knew that Democracy requires education, access, vigilance, tolerance, honesty, equality, and balance of power?

Who knew that a white billionaire developer’s hiding his tax returns before becoming POTUS would not be questioned, but a black senator’s birth certificate would be demanded after he became POTUS?

Who knew that W’s words would be welcome now?

Who knew that Moonlight was the best picture, not La La Land?

Who knew that not normal is normal?

Who knew? It’s simple: it’s complicated.

The Hateful ate

I expected a close election, with half of the country to be disappointed. I confess, I had the other half in mind. But either way, there is so much hate. Many are astounded that a man who ran on hate, bigotry, willful ignorance, crudeness, debasement, lack of sophistication, dearth of knowledge, and disregard of facts won the election. He is absolutely hated by so many, but obviously so many others disregarded his blatant narcissism and obnoxious behavior, because they hated the woman who opposed him. They also hated the status quo and wanted change.

Some explained the choice as the lesser of two evils. EVILS. I beg to disagree. Flaws are not evils. Too many no longer make such an important distinction. It is easier to be hateful toward that (or those) with whom we might disagree or even profoundly disagree.

Now, though, we have a country that “understands” (assumes) that hate is somehow brilliant politics. It defeats compromise (and even decency) and efforts to include an array of concerns. Hate disguised as authenticity or political or economic philosophy wins.

But hate doesn’t really win. It infects. The hate perpetrated against Obama, rather than any attempts to compromise or meet real people’s real needs, rendered our government practically impotent. Opposition to the point of doing nothing was more important than the messiness of imperfect policies or the ongoing work necessary for better solutions.

Hate has been a galvanizer of support for a very long time.

Our electorate has become a hatefulate, but everyone sees hate in the other side.

After perpetrating hate for so very long, the electorate has increasingly chosen to fragmentate and look to associate with those who hate the same stuff that they do. We communicate and concentrate amongst our own kind, and denigrate those with whom we can not seem to commiserate. We over -saturate and self-medicate.

I don’t mean to pontificate (well, maybe I do), but how can we graduate from being a hatefulate? The rhetoric of hate takes many forms. Some rhetoric and ideas are indeed hateful and absolutely shameful. We are a nation that has a horrific history of hate and exclusion, that has slowly transformed toward inclusion and opportunity, but not without hate. We have to reckon with being a hatefulate while saying how much we love Democracy and all the greatness of the U.S. We must look at ourselves, and the ease with which we dispense hate.

I too hate bigotry and misogyny, and injustice of any kind. I hate rudeness, and bullying, and obstinacy. I hate willful ignorance, and cruelty and disrespect. But I need to not be hateful. I see so much hatefulness even for good ideals. The hatefulness must be tempered.

We are a hatefulate as much as we are an electorate, employing hate as a means to win. I have to be hopeful, despite my overwhelming concerns. There is so much work we can do to improve matters, and people’s lives. And as individuals, we need to look at our own hatefulness, even if we are publicly polite. Hate has tremendous energy that can be toxic. It is easy to seize that energy to “win”. The sense of loss is what keeps driving hate. But the hatefulate really does lose. That’s US.

Base Ick

I have a confession. I have not watched a single debate this election cycle. I have always sought to be a good citizen, engaging in issues and participating civically. In fact I was drawn to teaching middle and high schoolers as a means to social/cultural and political/civic change. I always encouraged students to watch the debates and read newspapers. We would debate issues and discuss the debates. It was always a part of civic engagement. This year, though, I couldn’t . I wouldn’t.

With the immediacy of the internet and social media, the opportunity to get an up close look at the presidential candidates in real time seems to happen every moment of every day. The debates seem almost anachronistic to me. They are a tradition that seems to be less relevant as a litmus test of governance, than as a WWE match. These debates reinforce the worst. Of course, no doubt this year it is because of Trump, the anti-politician who has demeaned politics, and everyone and everything.

Of course I have read and watched recaps and analysis the next day, and even during the primaries when the first Democratic debate was substantive, I was not compelled to watch. The reality show that was unreal on the Republican side was easy for me to resist. I could be informed within hours, without needing Maalox.

Without enumerating the litany of disqualifiers that should have long ago eliminated Trump, I am frustrated that for so many election cycles, perhaps this one even more, the campaigns are played to the base. And what an apt term “base” is.
Base can refer to the foundation or starting point; that which (or in this case, those who) support the work (or organization). The base is a conceptual structure or entity upon which something is dependent. Sometimes, the base refers to a substance. In this case, the base  is not about substance. In our politics, the base is about ideology; but mostly it’s about anger and hate. It is worth noting that the base is the bottom.

Of course, as an adjective, “base” means without moral principles; lowly. Hmmmm……

The efforts of politics are directed mostly at the base. During the campaign, it is about garnering support from the base (i.e. strengthening the base), and then playing to the “undecideds”. These uncommitted voters are a tiny swath of the American electorate, and yet their votes are clamored for in the most outrageous, despicable ways, further separating politics from governance, much less from civility. The control of our politics is based on those who are uncommitted or possibly undecided.

We have been living in the gutter during this unbearable election season. Baseless comments, even fact-checked, get repeated and used to rile up anger and hate. Facts seem meaningless. Facts should be basic to decision making regarding our government, especially the presidency. But we are stuck having to try to not look at the disgusting politics, much less the disgusting speech and gestures that have captured this election cycle more than ever. What could be more base than misogyny, racism, jingoism, insulting veterans and their families, insulting disabled people, threats of violence or lack of due process, not paying taxes, taking advantage of workers, students, denying environmental threats…..and that’s not even mentioning the verbiage.

Our democratic principles are based on human dignity and decency.  Right now it’s back to base icks.

Fine Lines, Wrinkles and Age Spots

The wrinkles in Brian Williams’ story (stories?) have caused his six month suspension, and plenty of outrage on social media. Some on the left have said that his embellishments are less serious than the embellishments and lies that are regularly put forth by politicians and other news outlets.(I say, that’s no excuse.)  Of course, the story points to the iconic role of the American news anchor(man) on network broadcast news–a model that has weathered feminism (sort of), but not the information age.

Perhaps it’s a fine line between an embellishment and a lie, but it seems clear now, that if Williams was not even in the same helicopter that was under fire, his story constitutes a lie. The wrinkle for Williams is that his job is based on trust. The public depends on accurate reporting and truth. Mistakes happen, but knowingly reporting falsehoods is not a mistake. It’s just wrong.

The anchor is the person or thing that provides stability and confidence, particularly during uncertain situations. Jon Stewart, anchor of The Daily Show, has always maintained that he is a comedian/satirist (and has since added writer/director to his resume), but over the last 17 years, has become a real anchor. His faux news show has been more truthful, and taken more seriously, than many non-comedic news programs. His recent announcement that he will leave The Daily Show will undoubtedly be a wrinkle for Comedy Central, but the program, or whatever will replace it, will probably have an audience. He built trust and kept us informed and giggling through extremely uncertain, and often painful, times.

What is most revealing in these two stories that played out this week, practically back to back, is our profound need for an anchor. We may not necessarily need the 6:30 or 7:00 Nightly News, as our lives have changed so dramatically from the days when that was the news time. There have been many wrinkles for broadcast news that have rendered the past and current broadcasts beneath their tasks. The fine lines between news and entertainment continue to be injected with fillers. The comedians do a much finer job of treating wrinkles in the news stories. They may be entertaining first, but the intelligence and integrity are apparent, and engage us completely. It’s what the news programs used to do–anchor us.

Spotting the need for an anchor is one that we might not have thought about in previous  generations. Each age of television has had its anchors and standard bearers in news and entertainment. The broadcast news and late night talk shows have endured with their basic formatting for a few generations now. The Daily Show combined those formats and blended the faux news show with a talk show type interview (think Jack Parr) that has been must see tv or wherever for young and young at heart for about a generation and a half in tv years. It remains to be seen if the Daily Show will continue beyond Stewart, but his leaving has left so very many feeling adrift.

The age of The Daily Show has been one fraught with formerly unimaginable craziness and extreme everything–political,environmental, social, religious climate change. This, of course, has intersected with the internet age and the miracles of googling, wikipedia, youtube–all standard and in the palm of one’s hand–rendering network television news quaint, at best. At worst, well…..that’s what we have now.

What I noticed with the surprise and sadness this week, and the profound need for an anchor, is that despite the sense that many have that we are in a steady decline in practically every domain, we have not lost our sense of excellence. We want mensches–those who can discern the fine lines between embellishment and lying, and then be truthful. We can spot truthiness (thank you Stephen Colbert), and in this day and age, we need all the intelligence, rich vocabulary, critical thinking, challenging questions, compassion, integrity  and generosity that has been on display on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. These attributes are what anchor us.

So, while there may be some wrinkles to be smoothed out, we know that what’s true for the ages will keep us anchored. And laugh lines are beautiful.

Super Duper

Yesterday was a Super Duper Wednesday.  It was not a good day; certainly not in the news world. It was a day full of news and un-news and more bad news, and then punctuated news. By now we are all too familiar with the news media too eager to report, despite serious mistakes (and possibly serious ramifications from those mistakes). It does seem, however, that there is forensic evidence of a pressure cooker used for the bomb(s) that killed and maimed brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, at the Boston Marathon on Monday. A pressure cooker. It’s almost too obvious. The literal and figurative remains of a pressure cooker were what we were left with yesterday. By the time I went to bed, though, I felt duped.

On a day when media outlets rushed to report that a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing was arrested, and then that report was retracted, the “pressure cooker” that is the news media revealed its limits. Then there was the discovery of a  potentially poisonous letter sent to President Obama, just after one was discovered sent to a senator (maybe more than one senator). At least those letters were initialed by the sender, so as to avoid any confusion. By the end of the day, when most of the news revolved around the aftermath of the horror in Boston, and attempts to get attention for poisoning senators and the President, a bi-partisan bill that would expand background checks to purchase a gun was defeated. President Obama responded,” The American people are trying to figure out, how can something have 90 percent support and yet not happen?”  I think many of us felt Super Duped.

We live in Super times. Supermodels and Supermajorities; Super Bowls and Super Bugs; Super Moms and Superheroes; (Superman); Superhighways and Superconductors; Super Glue and Super Funds; Supersonic and Supernova; Superstars and Superpowers; Superego and Superficial and Supernatural…….

So much seems to be heightened–super heightened– and we often find ourselves in our own pressure cookers. Then we have Super Duper days.