Just days before the assassination attempt in Tucson, my friend Dee and I were talking about how impossible it is in America to speak honestly about the problems we face.
We all know, for example, that children who arrive at school ill-fed and unprepared are unlikely to succeed; yet to say so is racist. We see our dismal rankings in international health statistics and know that we don't have the best health care in the world; yet to say so is treasonous. We know that pouring billions of dollars into Afghanistan won't repair our crumbling bridges, roads, and airports; yet to say so is unpatriotic.
It didn't seem like anyone was speaking honestly about anything--until Saturday afternoon when Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik let us have it. Outraged by the killings in his home community, he said that "the anger, the hatred, [and] the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous." He cited "the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government" and lamented that "this has not become the nice United States that most of us grew up in."
Finally. Someone not afraid to speak the truth.
We need more people like Sheriff Dupnik--willing to name the ways our society has veered off-track and lost sight of the common values of decency, respect, and fairness. If a sheriff in Tucson, Arizona, can name so clearly an insidious undercurrent in modern America, then other elected officials can do the same.
We should expect no less from those who call themselves leaders.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Speculative News
What to do when there's no news to report? Speculate, of course. The possibilities are endless: how will John Boehner shepherd his flock of wandering Republicans? Who will President Obama choose for his new staff? Will they satisfy the endlessly unhappy progressives or antagonize them even more? Will the Democrats get their act together? Will Harry Reid crack a smile?
Speculative news is non-news. We get it all the time when things are slow. Weather forecasters are good at it here in North Carolina, especially when a winter storm is on the way, or might be on the way, or might be somewhere on the east coast. Fortify your bread and milk supply, and don't forget the batteries. You never know what trouble two inches of snow might bring.
But it looks like the winds are changing. The Republicans were finally sworn in, they'll soon begin passing irresponsible legislation, and we'll all be back in business.
Rejoice, news junkies of every stripe. There's hope that non-news will soon fade to new news.
In the meantime, we can all take comfort in today's reading of the Constitution at the opening of Congress--pausing to reflect particularly on the Republican party's commitment to establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility, and promoting the general Welfare.
Let the year begin.
Speculative news is non-news. We get it all the time when things are slow. Weather forecasters are good at it here in North Carolina, especially when a winter storm is on the way, or might be on the way, or might be somewhere on the east coast. Fortify your bread and milk supply, and don't forget the batteries. You never know what trouble two inches of snow might bring.
But it looks like the winds are changing. The Republicans were finally sworn in, they'll soon begin passing irresponsible legislation, and we'll all be back in business.
Rejoice, news junkies of every stripe. There's hope that non-news will soon fade to new news.
In the meantime, we can all take comfort in today's reading of the Constitution at the opening of Congress--pausing to reflect particularly on the Republican party's commitment to establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility, and promoting the general Welfare.
Let the year begin.
Monday, January 3, 2011
A Cape Cod Holiday
Cape Cod at Christmas was a blast of New England cold, a landscape both foreign and familiar, an oasis of water and stars, and a home with family and friends.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
The Work of Christmas
by Howard Thurman
"When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart."
"When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart."
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Eisenhower Wisdom
Guess who said this?
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953
Imagine any Democratic president saying this today, let alone a Republican. Where is Ike when we need him?
Perhaps it takes a man from the battlefield, and a person of unusual humanity, to understand truly the senselessness of war.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953
Imagine any Democratic president saying this today, let alone a Republican. Where is Ike when we need him?
Perhaps it takes a man from the battlefield, and a person of unusual humanity, to understand truly the senselessness of war.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
