Category Archives: Political Discourse

Sorrows to the Stones

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Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;

Who, though they cannot answer my distress,

Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,

Titus Andronicus, Act III, Scene I

Sorrows to the Stones is a work in progress, novel title, but the quote from which it derives best defines the place for where my understanding of humankind has landed.

The late Dr. Karen Erickson, former Dean of the school of Arts and Sciences at Southern New Hampshire University and advocate of the Master of Fine Arts program once said the job of a writer is to observe and become the spokesperson of what those observations reveal. Writers hold the mirror of humanity, of society, and permit the reader to focus on what it means to be a participant of life.

I’ve had ample opportunity to observe over six and a half decades. I watched John Glenn launch in 1962, felt the tension of the Cuban Missile Crisis, experienced the emotional shock of the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations. Observed the unfolding civil rights movement as integration and school busing blurred the strict segregation of African-Americans, the landing on the moon, daily reports from the battlefields of Viet Nam on the evening news. The freedom marches of 1963 and yet we succumb to riots like that in Los Angeles three decades later and now again with the murder of George Floyd.

I’ve seen the widening divergence of our two-party political system. Where a Venn diagram once showed the majority of red and blue dots in the center, now has solid white space between red and blue balloons. Gay rights and LGBTQ issues finally made it to the table of discussion, yet it seems even more dangerous to be anything other than a male or female heterosexual. Society had forged inroads to acceptance, but like a failed launch, the rocket has come crashing back to earth.

I observed the Islamic world through five years in the Middle East, seen unrelenting poverty of third-world nations where Philippinos, Yemenis, Pakistanis, and Asians made the equivalent of pocket change in comparison to their western counterparts. I’ve seen children in Africa with only a single outfit of clothing, herding flocks of goat and camel down barely paved roads. Soccer balls were the currency of youth on the streets of Asmara.

Then there was the election process of 2016, a turning point – my observations now hyper-focused with a clearer imperative. The simple act of writing stories faltered in the context of relevance. The stay-at-home version of existence thanks to Covid-19 allowed more time to scan posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram where the conduct of argumentation performs from the platform of absolutes. There is a tendency toward a lack of attention to perspective and the breeding of over-simplification. Smart phones provide the means by which bad behavior proves the point but also becomes a weapon to brand anyone and everyone with a scarlet letter. Someone is offended in one way or another at every moment. We live with daily character assassination, some warranted; many questionable. Civil wars of all issues, no matter the magnitude, rage and divide. Leadership tears at the fabric of our country and feeds the virus of disease that diminishes all progress. Worse, the creation of a permissive environment where racist and supremacist attitudes projecting hatred and narrow-mindedness are tolerated with tacit encouragement at the highest level.

I was fortunate not to be born in a time or place that would have subjected me to the likes of Hitler, Stalin, or Mussolini. I have not been starved or suffered the threat of horrific death by bombings, political purges, or prejudice. I have faced many issues and difficulties, but for all that live a decent life. It doesn’t mean, however, my observations are any less accurate, nor is my perception of where we are heading, and it’s scary.

The brief respite the planet has enjoyed from human interaction has demonstrated some remarkable changes. Fish can be seen in the canals of Venice, carbon emissions are down, air quality is up, water is cleaner, animals stray farther from their limited habitats. It paints a clear picture of the damage we do and what we’ll continue to do once the pandemic passes. The DNA of human nature is rife with destructive tendencies. The media does a good job in demonstrating this with every article, news report, breaking headline, and interviews with every talking head imaginable. One cannot experience a half hour news program without feeling doom, even with the occasional uplifting story designed to restore a sense faith and hope eroded by our steady diet of reality.

I don’t know where we go from here, but from my observations and conclusions, it doesn’t look like a very good place. So, I share my woes with the stones…for their concern seems more genuine than that of my fellow man.

 

Photo by Nikhil kumar on Unsplash

Gun Violence, Gun Control, Where Do We Go From Here?

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I haven’t written much since the new administration took over The White House. A little over a year ago, I wrote a piece called The Day America Died that drew upon evidence gleaned from observations of what people had to say after the Republican National Convention. The overwhelming lack of understanding that faced the nation by choosing something like Trump to be the leader of the United States was disturbing. I realized the country I loved was a myth.

As if I needed more proof, monitoring the debate over gun control and gun violence reaffirms the presence of a cancer eating at the healthy, vibrant tissue of our society. Yesterday, across our nation, young people stood to address the reality of guns in our midst. Posting of a video in which a young man eloquently addressed the truth of gun violence and control on Facebook was followed by the same kind of sick retort I witnessed after the RNC. Here are some of those:

John Mitchell: “in case you forgot student, you still can’t vote.”

Larry Stark: “moron”

Thomas C. White: “Poor lost souls… this court was built with guns… and guns are what keeps us free”

Tara Ann LeNeave: “There parents should be ashamed of there selves, if u had been doing ur job at home before they went to school all this wouldn’t be going on, lazy parents=out of control children”

Charles Jerger: “This kid is an idiot. Rely on the government for everything. Sounds like communism.”

Fbio Rodrigo Milani: “begins with beautiful speeches and full of noble reasons, but the truth is that in the end they open up space for masked dictatorships of democracy, like Venezuela or my Brazil. Weapons are necessary for self-protection against other men and especially against the state itself.”

Johnny Cook Jr.: “You have no idea what you are talking about. Let me ask you a question respectfully. What makes and AR-15 an “Assault Rifle?” Seriously…. why do you call it that?”

Chuck Barnes: “Anybody that thinks the problem is guns their just delusional. The problem is society letting it’s youth get away with whatever they want and having no consequences.”

There are ten thousand other responses to that post, some in support of the students, many are not. Some were just in-eloquent enough to simply post an emoji giving them the finger.

Not a single day goes by where someone being shot and killed by a gun hits the news. EVERY…SINGLE…DAY. If we as a country have demonstrated one thing, it’s that we are not responsible enough to possess guns.

So, cue the second amendment:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

In the late eighteenth century, our fledgling nation was vulnerable to invasion. As we did not possess the world’s strongest military, nor an early warning detection system, it seemed reasonable to allow for the population to raise a militia to defend our shores. We’re way beyond that now. Proponents of guns love to take what they want from the second amendment. It’s simply stated, but there are three commas in the text of the compound sentence. The first part suggests the purpose, the second establishes the mandate, the third the right, and the fourth offers the protection. Taken as a whole, when the first two parts are either out of compliance (I dare anyone to name the militia they belong to) or not even needed (you’re going to accomplish what our military can’t?), the second two parts cease to be relevant.

Since we are incapable of being responsible, it’s time to repeal the second amendment. Handguns and assault rifles should be made illegal outside the confines of law enforcement and the military. This is not something that would happen overnight; in fact it would take a generation or more to remove the millions upon millions of guns in private ownership. I believe the ability to make that happen rests with the youth of our country. My generation seems incapable of doing anything.

I can picture every gun owner reading this stamping his or her foot, having a little temper tantrum, and spitting out all the arguments about how they need guns for protection against armed bad guys, or to prevent home invasions, or for when Russia or North Korea land on our shores. Once all handguns and assault rifles were gone, you wouldn’t have need for a gun to protect yourself from a bad guy, and if the Russians or North Koreans get past our military and invade our cities, your little guns won’t be worth a damn. Simply put, I call bullshit on every argument I’ve ever heard about having a gun.

I love guns, in fact for many years I made part of my living carrying one. I grew up in the same culture everyone else did, the same one that glorifies guns. What kid didn’t want a cap gun or a cowboy gun or a plastic assault rifle – nerf gun or otherwise? I did. I love movies that involve blowing things up or ones with heavy weapons action. But they’re movies, the place for fantasy. I love Harry Potter, too, but I can’t conjure a Patronus charm. Reality is where guns don’t belong. No parent should see on the news that their children’s school is on lock-down because of an active shooter. No mother should be at a traffic light and have their five-year-old shot in the head by accident because two drug dealers decide to shoot it out on the street. No one should have to go to an outdoor concert and worry some nutcase might be lurking in a window somewhere about to open fire. I surrendered my weapons in July 2016. It was difficult, like quitting smoking, but it was the right thing to do, the healthy choice.

To the proponents of gun ownership and to the NRA, yes, I do want the government to come for your handguns and assault-style rifles, because you can’t handle them. I don’t care if you’re the “responsible” gun owner. I call bullshit on that argument as well because it simply perpetuates the culture and makes you complicit in gun violence and death.

I’m not opening this post to debate. I’ve heard it all before. If you don’t like what I’m saying, tough! If you agree, print this out and mail a copy to your elected officials. It’s time to bring down the second amendment. It’s time to put on our grown-up clothes and do what needs to be done.

My generation and the one just after mine are leaving a diseased legacy to our children and grandchildren – from the decimation of our planet to the continuing degradation of our society. Let’s try to eliminate at least this threat to our nation.

One Voice, One Vote…Time for a New Amendment

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Four times in American history, the Electoral College has propelled a candidate to the highest office in the country at odds with the popular vote, and twice in just the last sixteen years. It’s disturbing to consider that the process by which a president is elected has crumbled like the decaying water mains that run beneath the streets of New York City. There was considerable debate in 1787 as to just how the election of the President and Vice President would be determined. Several proposals were presented and argued with the intent of having the most representative way of achieving such an election, one that would be free of contamination by undue influences.

Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist 68 that the “sense of the people should operate in the choice”. Given this was written in 1788, one could appreciate his desire for the ultimate in fairness. He also suggested that those elected to the “college” would be “most likely to have the information and discernment” to make a selection that represented the best choice for the person to govern the country. No one in the late 1700s could have imagined the form of technology and communication that we have at our fingertips today. It clearly allows us to act on his desire for choice, but renders his concern for access to information and discernment moot.

In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote, but the Electoral College put George W. Bush in the White House. Under his watch, we experienced 9/11, the worst economic downturn in nearly a century, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, and a call for a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage. Now again, with Trump, the Electoral College has failed to deliver on its mandate to use its ability for information and discernment to avoid the election of someone “not in eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications”. Instead, we have a president that is a domestic and international embarrassment.

The concept of the Electoral College is now as archaic as those NYC water mains. We no longer need a body of electors who have since 1824 given a winner-take-all (except for Maine and Nebraska) series of votes to a candidate who lacks the popular sentiment. What we need is a new constitutional amendment. We’ve done it twenty-seven times in the last 230 years. We need to make all that urging to exercise our civic duty to go out and vote mean something. What’s the point in voting if the ultimate outcome says thanks for your vote, but we’re going to ignore you anyway?

One can argue the fine points of constitutional law and Federalist essays all day long, but let’s cut through the garbage – in our day and age, with our ability to communicate to the world at large photos of our cats and pictures of our favorite recipes, we have the means to cast an informed vote by ourselves. It’s simple: one voice, one vote.