2020 – A SILENT GENERATION LAMENT

The cohort of Americans born between 1928 and 1945 has been called the Silent Generation. I didn’t know that I was a member of the Silent Generation until I wrote the piece below and I looked up “generation” in Wikipedia to see if I was indeed a boomer myself or, maybe, even an undeserving member of what they were calling the Greatest Generation. I found out that I am stuck in between the two. We are hardly noticed by the folks who try to generalize about the behavioral characteristics of people born in certain age cohorts.

I was late coming to the Silent Generation so my adult years were spent with talk everywhere about “boomers.” Marketing and media primarily addressed their needs and preferences. I heard so much about boomers that I subconsciously identified and, in any case, I was very nearly one myself since you could say that I was born on the cusp. But as I read more about those years between 1928 and 1945, I could see how completely my life was in the grip of that history.

What follows is very long. If you decide to read it, you will see that it is laid out like a poem. If it reads like prose to you, at least stop for a beat to think before going to the next line. Each bit of our history is loaded with plenty to think about. Yes, Truman and Eisenhower may not excite you. Ozzie and Harriet may bore you. But the kids who first learned about the world from floor model radios and small black and white screens had much to think about. And we have much to regret.

The piece is a personal project. It was completed during the 2020 election campaign and before the Biden-Harris election results were known. Although it is a hopeful sign, it doesn’t really change much. Having lived through alternating and descending stair steps down into Trump hell, I know that it will take more than a single presidential election to get us heading onward and upward again. But we must continue the struggle.

Continue reading “2020 – A SILENT GENERATION LAMENT”

Day 244: Still in Lockdown and Trying to Decide if Things Are Getting Better or Decidedly Worse

His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

If that sounds a lot like “your favorite president,” do not be concerned. It is not about him, it is from a psychological profile of Adolph Hitler written for the Office of Strategic Services, the World War II predecessor of the CIA. I know, it isn’t considered to be appropriate in American political discourse to throw around the H word when we talk about the loyal opposition.

The document, written for the OSS in 1943, had been classified and was released by the CIA for publication in 1999. World War II was far in the rear view mirror by then and it certainly did not seem that it could ever be used in American politics except, perhaps, as a guide for citizens who need to be eternally vigilant and on the watch for anyone who would use that model in our own domestic politics.

The above quote appears in the report, A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler: His Life and Legend, by Walter C. Langer,[7][8] which is available from the US National Archives.

Continue reading “Day 244: Still in Lockdown and Trying to Decide if Things Are Getting Better or Decidedly Worse”

There is a crack in everything, That’s how the light gets in . . .

In 2016, Leonard Cohen died the day before the election. I played this song the day after the election and wept. Today you can listen with tears of joy. Always remember: there’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.

Pennsylvania. Thank you for your votes that put us over the top. And for preserving the Liberty Bell. There’s a little crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.

Anthem by Leonard Cohen

The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Yeah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free

Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

We asked for signs
The signs were sent
The birth betrayed
The marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
Of every government
Signs for all to see

I can’t run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
A thundercloud
And they’re going to hear from me

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

You can add up the parts
You won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march
There is no drum
Every heart, every heart to love will come
But like a refugee

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
That’s how the light gets in
That’s how the light gets in

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Leonard CohenAnthem lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Nothing I Can Add to This: Colbert Reacts to DJT’s Pathetic Performance from the WH Briefing Room

The Morning After

Nine a.m., Wednesday, November 5, 2020.

The votes are still being counted in those highly anticipated swing states that DJT carried and rode to victory in the electoral college in 2016. Biden is carrying a two million plus vote lead in the national popular vote, but who cares about that any more?

The outlook now is not good. Although I support Biden and most folks say the tea leaves favor Biden (the notable exception is DJT who has already tried to claim victory), I think we are probably in for, at worst, another four years of Bad Trump Government, or at best four more years of gridlock. It appears the congress will continue to be divided and give either executive a difficult time in passing any kind of legislative program. And a President Biden with a Republican senate led by McConnell will likely find the Republicans banking Supreme Court appointments until they can elect another president who will work from their list of potential appointees.

I don’t know that I have the heart to follow this nation’s politics any longer. The foundational consensus we built for so long after the Civil War seems permanently eroded and, as a nation, we seem unable to address the existential problems of our species. I shudder to think we are passing them off to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping for their disinterested handling.

Still, I will stay engaged long enough to see how things go in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. They offer at least some little speck of hope for a better future. Maybe, at the very least, a president who does his job, one who will develop and execute a plan for confronting a pandemic.

Do You Think It May Be Time to Try Democracy?

Today the New York Times offered a video interview with folks from UK, Australia, South Africa, and Germany on the subject of voting in America compared with the way they do things over there. They were appalled at the tricks some Americans have used to keep other Americans from voting.

It is almost always Republicans trying to stop Democrats from voting, but not always. Democrats have also had their day when it comes to gerrymandering, but never resulting in anything quite like the crazy quilt Republicans have created in various states to water down the Democratic vote in urban areas.

And today the Republicans in Texas are trying to have 127,000 ballots thrown out charging that curbside voting is illegal as it is being administered in Harris County. Not just stopped. Thrown out.

Clearly, the people who are in charge and calling themselves Republicans today have no respect for your opinion. They are not just anti-Democrat, they are antidemocratic, if you get the distinction.

The constitution offers no guidance to the states on how they are to allocate house seats, so they use the process to sustain whichever party is in power. We do not have to tolerate that. Any clever high school student equipped with a little knowledge of the constitution and an understanding of democracy could draw fair lines that equally represent a state’s voters. Surely we have Harvard and Yale educated people who can handle the job so high schoolers don’t have to waste their time while they should be paying attention to their on line classes.

And the electoral college just needs to go. I am tired of the years of being ignored in presidential elections because Texas has been considered so safely in the Republican column that the candidates invested no time or money here. (Ah, but they were more than willing to take the money out.) In fact, three of the nation’s most populous states have little bearing on the outcome of presidential elections (New York, Texas, California) because they are balanced against oppositely aligned “safe states”. That has the effect of lowering the level of interest in those states and, over time, the slow death of meaningful democratic participation. So, dump the electoral college. There are other ways to see that minorities are not overrun by majorities. You don’t address that problem by rendering meaningless the votes of the majority.

This presidential election year has very nearly rendered me silent. I have freely expressed my opinion but there seemed little point in spelling out my reasons in these little op-eds. If you read from America’s rich resources of real journalism, most of what needs to be said is being said. There is not much I can add that doesn’t look like a low form of name-calling.

The trouble is, it would all be true. He really is an idiot, coward, bully, narcissistic thug, etc. All those things. And so are his accomplices in the senate. But I demean myself when I offer that as my contribution to political discussion. Alas, there is not much more that can be said of the folks in power on the Republican side of the aisle.

I have watched horse-race reporting on news channel political talk shows and they appear intent on making the race as exciting as they can. So I have lately tuned them out. I will watch the returns on Tuesday night and all the way through January 20 if it takes that long.

Unfortunately, DJT has almost sold me on the proposition that the only way the other side can win is if the election is rigged. He has said it so frequently that we all come to believe it and, now, if he actually won, who would ever believe it? Certainly there is a great deal more evidence of pro-Republican fix than anything the Democrats could pull off if they were so inclined.

So why not give democracy a chance? It’s time after 231 years and a civil war.

We were once held out as the gold standard of democracy. Now they laugh at us. Think about that. Germany and South Africa are laughing at the America that stood as the model for hard won democracies in those countries.