One week left of a presidential campaign that is anything but presidential. It casts into sharp relief the dignity of the presidents we’ve had—from Washington to Obama: men who knew the weight of the office and the respect it should command. They lived up to the honor—for the most part—and gave us something to be proud of.
Not this time. Seemingly endless muck and mire, flung helter-skelter, indiscriminate as a cafeteria food-fight. All are dirtied simply by being in the room. Truth depends on where you sit: there are no standards of behavior, no higher ground, no respect. We are all brawling in the mud; we are turning into animals. Everyone is flawed. That should be the first assumption. Mistakes are made. But then we move on. No recriminations, no clinging to every misstep and miscalculation. No resurrection of each and every nanosecond of public and private behavior. How did we get here, how did we fall so far?
Power. Anger. Fear. In pursuit of the first, mobilizing the others, dividing the country into us and them, making us enemies of each other. Is this what civil war is? This is not the right way; this is not the American way.. are we moving inevitably toward that division or will it end November 8?
I don’t think next Tuesday will resolve the issue. The genie has been released from the bottle. Violence, intolerance and fear are moving like black shadows through every stratum of our society. It’s not the white nationalists or the Tea Party or the NRA or the Klan or the far right or liberal left, the uneducated, the elitists, the political machines, the pundits, or the just plain ignorant who are out there agitating for change. There are liars and spin doctors and deliberate misinterpretations everywhere.
It’s not simply good vs. evil; there’s some of both on each side, whether we want to admit it or not. No single person can right what is wrong with the country. No single person can give us the instant gratification we expect. We all need to take the long view, take a step back ( a VERY LONG step) that would give us the perspective we have so happily relinquished. We are all in this together, whether we approve of each other’s choices or not. No matter what happens a week from now, we will stand or fall on our ability to hold to the system of checks and balances on which our government was based.
At the risk of offending someone—perhaps everyone—God help us all.
Not this time. Seemingly endless muck and mire, flung helter-skelter, indiscriminate as a cafeteria food-fight. All are dirtied simply by being in the room. Truth depends on where you sit: there are no standards of behavior, no higher ground, no respect. We are all brawling in the mud; we are turning into animals. Everyone is flawed. That should be the first assumption. Mistakes are made. But then we move on. No recriminations, no clinging to every misstep and miscalculation. No resurrection of each and every nanosecond of public and private behavior. How did we get here, how did we fall so far?
Power. Anger. Fear. In pursuit of the first, mobilizing the others, dividing the country into us and them, making us enemies of each other. Is this what civil war is? This is not the right way; this is not the American way.. are we moving inevitably toward that division or will it end November 8?
I don’t think next Tuesday will resolve the issue. The genie has been released from the bottle. Violence, intolerance and fear are moving like black shadows through every stratum of our society. It’s not the white nationalists or the Tea Party or the NRA or the Klan or the far right or liberal left, the uneducated, the elitists, the political machines, the pundits, or the just plain ignorant who are out there agitating for change. There are liars and spin doctors and deliberate misinterpretations everywhere.
It’s not simply good vs. evil; there’s some of both on each side, whether we want to admit it or not. No single person can right what is wrong with the country. No single person can give us the instant gratification we expect. We all need to take the long view, take a step back ( a VERY LONG step) that would give us the perspective we have so happily relinquished. We are all in this together, whether we approve of each other’s choices or not. No matter what happens a week from now, we will stand or fall on our ability to hold to the system of checks and balances on which our government was based.
At the risk of offending someone—perhaps everyone—God help us all.
No comments:
Post a Comment