Another Wish List

Last week I posted a list of my personal wishes during this time of coronavirus.  In light of the murder of George Floyd last Monday, I post a new list.  Here's what I wish for America:

1. A dinner table where everyone is fed.

2. A neighborhood where everyone can jog.

3. A school where everyone is educated.

4. A hospital where everyone has the same chance.

5. A police department where everyone is safe.

6.  A government that works for everyone.

7.  A people that confronts its racist past.

8. A nation that's willing to force change.

9. A United States that gets it: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

10. An America that redefines "We, the People," to include everyone.

Rugged Individualists

One of the hallmarks of America is our mythical pride in individualism.  We tout so-called "self-made millionaires" and those who "pull themselves up by their bootstraps."  We profess freedoms at the expense of others and consider ourselves "exceptional."

Interestingly enough, Herbert Hoover cited America's "rugged individualism" in his closing campaign speech in 1928.  By contrasting American principles with European "doctrines of paternalism and state socialism," he heralded the American way of self-reliance and limited government, portending his disastrous handling of the Great Depression.  His failure to authorize the federal government to help ordinary Americans made a terrible situation worse.

So what happens, almost 100 years later, when another crisis collides with American individualism, a new disease that's communal in nature?  A disease that puts my life in the hands of others, even those I don't know and those who choose not to wash their hands or wear masks or distance themselves.

We get protest signs like these:

"Give me liberty or give me COVID-19"
"Sacrifice the weak"
"Tyranny is Spreading Faster than the China Virus"

And we get behavior like these:

Stormed state capitols
Heckled health care workers
Gun-toting intimidators

To make matters worse, our president encourages these attitudes, inciting anger and protests.  He clearly values the rights of the individual--as he pushes states to re-open--over the collective health of Americans.  In tweeting states to "LIBERATE," he implicitly instructs Americans to disregard their responsibility to each other and look out only for themselves.  It's a selfish way forward.

Donald Trump, like Herbert Hoover, gets it wrong.  Echoing his predecessor who vetoed major aid legislation in 1930 by saying it would "bring far more distress than it will cure," Trump said in March that "we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself."  For in the case of COVID-19 the cure means a collective response, a shared responsibility for each other's lives.

Such responsibility confounds Donald Trump.  I'm not sure he knows what it means.  But without it, we lose people unnecessarily.  Fellow Americans.  Human lives. 

What could be more important?

Reflections on the SOTU

Part I. John Boehner seemed oddly uncomfortable throughout the speech. He didn't fit his new clothes as Speaker of the House, and certainly didn't resemble someone riding a wave of change. He looked liked he'd eaten something sour. I wonder what this means for the work of this Congress.

Part II. President Reagan's idea in 1982 to honor ordinary heroes at the SOTU was brilliant. I love watching the people who sit with the First Lady; Tuesday night was no exception. They're the only ones in the room who look like the rest of us and seem to have a clue of what living in this country is really like. Especially wonderful was the woman from Forsyth County, North Carolina, who has returned to school to pursue a degree in biotechnology. When President Obama began speaking about her, she turned to those around her and said, "That's me! That's me!"

Pure spontaneity is not what these speeches are about.

Part III. The long, thunderous applause for our troops disturbed me, not because they don't deserve it. They do. But the applause was like the bumper stickers that say "Support our Troops"; these feel like lip service paid to people who give up their lives in ways that the rest of us can't imagine and aren't called on to do. We're not even asked to pay more to support their work. All we need to do is clap every so often and all will be well.

Part IV. I was glad to see President Obama dispel the arrogant notion of American exceptionalism without giving up on American idealism. Finally someone told us from the top what we need to hear: China is now home to the world's fastest computer, South Koreans have greater internet access than we do, our own engineers give our infrastructure a "D," and we have sunk to 9th place in the percentage of college degrees held. So much for an America that's better than the rest of the world.

Yet the President reminded us at the same time that "we are the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook." He called this our Sputnik moment and challenged us to do better. I liked his message. We may have talents as a nation, but these aren't automatically handed to us. We need to work hard and to think imaginatively to reclaim a special place in the world.

Part V. Nobody called out, "You lie." Maybe we're moving, gradually, to a better place.