Words and pictures exposed to light. A space of notions, impressions and breezes. Text and photography by Tom.
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Around here....the truth is....
Friday, October 1, 2021
ON THE BRINK..............IF
Approaching two years of pandemic living, humankind is the poorer for it.
"When your negativity bucket is full, it's full!" said the Rat as he threw neighbor Bob off the cliff in the cartoon strip Pearls Before Swine.
We are devolving.
Extraordinary souls have devoted themselves to others, to healing and to the common good, but almost everybody else is worried or angry or both.
We've begun to understand we are a planet of grief, grievances and that pieces do not fit as they did. Life as we knew it is also a victim.
Those things, organizations, structure, mores, routines and all that held us together as a last tendril of civility are gone or are changed, drastically. We find ourselves on the brink emotionally, politically, and as a planet.
Petulance has become our happy face.
Media is the clarion.
Radio, television and social media have morphed story telling and journalism. It's changed reporting and our expectations.
Curated and aggregated information, like all things, was subject to human foibles. That is how racism, male supremacy, cultural bias and the like got baked into normative assumptions. Though overdue and limited, old media was and is, self-correcting.
Now, however, we watch algorithms, products of human reasoning, maturing through data and machine learning, amass power and influence, though unrestrained by idealism, values, faith, principles and standards of decency and civility. It shows.
No one elected the tech titans, yet their profit making platforms are addictive and they bend culture. Old media plays along. The manic pandemic lifestyle wedded us more intensely to our screens. Everything has changed as we live in a feedback loop of discordance. So much of life is like fingernails on a blackboard.
Snark, "gotcha," and the takedown is the code of behavior and modus operandi. There is not enough probing for understanding and there is way too much lunging for the throat.
Correspondents feed their social media streams, and maintain a "following" in addition to the work of being experts on their beat. Time was when only information and fact gathering was the job. Developing sources and contacts takes time, now devoted to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds.
"News by flavor" has sharpened the edges between us. In fact it is only about business, building ratings and selling ads, but the poor fools who consume hours of the stuff end up duped and manipulated.
There is seething pressure building among many. They want to see Democrats unite, and not squander opportunity at a time of peril. Since Reagan, Republicans have tried to undo the Democrat social pact with America.
Friday, January 15, 2021
Truth in America-Battle Lines are Drawn
The more perfect Union, Justice, domestic Tranquility, the common defense, the general Welfare and the blessings of liberty, the very raison d'etre enshrined in the Constitution, are in doubt and the people of these states are not United.
All is at risk, in danger and under attack because of lies. In January 2021, the US Capitol is a fortress, on defensive footing after four years of assault.
As power transitions, the future of the Republic demands a full investigation of the insurrection. A national commission, such as those that investigated 9/11, the Kennedy Assassination, the Roberts Commission on the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, and other national trauma should be instituted. There is much to learn.
The deadly insurrection appears to have had inside help from republican house members and/or staff. Capitol Hill police officers appear to have been complicit. Federal investigators have already identified police and sheriff department officers from across the US as being active in the assault. The truth of these insinuations needs to be learned.
Aside from prosecutorial and national security threads to be followed, the commission would document the enabling social, political and cultural influences that undergird and created the foundation for the most heinous attack in US history.
As the people who inherit the constitution and who are now responsible to maintain the democratic republic we must act forcefully against all bad actors, no matter where the trail leads.
One of my heroes is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who died for his role in trying to end the rise of the fascism and authoritarianism that spawned the Holocaust. Generations of Germans have confessed and lamented how Hitler's Nazi movement could and should have been stopped by German citizens, rather than enabling a mad narcissist to turn a full nation to evil. They believed the lie. The risk of not seeking the truth is grave.
Those Americans who believe the false claims of a desperate and demonstratively insane Donald Trump must understand it is about more than politics. They need to know the depth and expanse of the Trump deception, distortion and anti American behavior. For the well being of the nation and themselves, they must come to accept the truth.
Trump's supporters on Capitol Hill must acknowledge they were wrong. It would be an affirmation of the sanctity of the separation of powers and the Constitution for those in the House and Senate to be removed and charged as insurrectionists and seditionists. It appears such a movement may be mounted in both chambers.
There are calls for remembering the January 6th attack on the capitol and attempted coup as we remember 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. The more we learn of the violent orgy of the Trump mob, the more egregious it becomes.
The republican party is presently infested with cowards. As William Saletan wrote, "Republicans who were in a multi year frenzy over Benghazi are now downplaying insurrection at the Capitol." You saw that evidenced in the Impeachment debate.
There's a mitigating circumstance, and while it is not a pass for their continued support of Trump, it speaks to the vile influence and toll he has spawned. People, politicians and state officials targeted by Trump now need security. Some republican House members say they feared for their lives if they voted for impeachment. Family members of the incoming administration are under protection from Trump supporters. State capitols and state officials have been threatened by republicans.
Since the day of his announcement Donald Trump filled America with lies, hate and fueled division. The republican party sold its soul to the only president to be impeached twice, a man who has done the bidding, willingly or otherwise of the wily Vladimir Putin. Trump has presided over brining America to an all time low.
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
A Nation Endowed...
“We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Preamble to the Declaration of Independence.
An observation-the men who signed the declaration were certainly not feminists and some of them were lukewarm to God, personally, though there She/He is, in the first sentence of the first act to declare a free nation.
From the beginning this nation has abided people of faith and those who eschew it. Isn't that how it should be? Tolerant. Though in our more enlightened self, we've come to recognize the sins of our founding.
We would be more free, more just, and better in all ways if we would have started differently with native citizens and their beliefs, and if we had not permitted Africans to be made slaves.
At a time, and in a world that was cruel and classist, imperfect though we were, we sought a more perfect union.
No one is required to practice a faith, but the freedom to exercise a belief is essential to a free society. It is a principle this nation was built upon.
A droll and dear friend, a retired Judge, who presided over the process of American justice and who is a student of philosophy, tells people he is a Frisbeterian. He says when a Frisbeterian passes, their soul goes into a frisbee stuck on a roof some place.
From the beginning we've had divisions but despite the differences, our Providential parent was put at the foundation.
The constitution, the very bones of our republic, is signed under the sentence
“...the 17th of September in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred eighty seven….”
This is not an exposition on belief, faith or religion. This is to serve as an understanding that an active allegiance to a Divine power is a keystone to our system of government and it has implications as to how we are as a nation.
My use of the word God in this post is code for the sacred beliefs of all, however it is said or left unspoken, imagined, known, practiced or worshipped. It is the human equivalence of an understanding of the Divine intelligence to which humans have fidelity and devotion.
There is, nor ever was, a unanimity. While Europeans came to these shores for religious freedom, they had different ideas.
Puritans who made Massachusetts Bay their home set up religious communities based on their view of the Bible. They were, however, not friendly to anyone who had a different view.
At the same time Rhode Island was established for the very purpose of religious freedom. In fact Rhode Island welcomed everyone, faith or no faith and it didn’t matter. Quakers and Jews, who had a hard time elsewhere, were free to practice faith as they wished. People with my judge friend's sense of whimsey would not have burned at a stake in Rhode Island.
Coexistence, cooperation, and mutual respect, work.
Bringing this back to the premise, the nation has been built by diversity of people and beliefs, indeed! But always there was a central principle; what we do, how we live, how we treat each other is based on the idea we live in accordance with how God would expect. “…one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” We swear to tell the truth, “so help us God.” The oath of office is sworn on a Bible.
a kind of secular sacredness
Over the centuries, the common center of our experiment in democratic republic has been the power we know by many names, according to varied faiths and beliefs.
We have become more diverse, multi-cultural and our understanding has more flavor and a diversity of accents.
While people have been free not to practice a faith, we all have lived according to our constitutional belief in the source of faith, and the even more ancient texts that are at the core of the belief of the major religious groups.
Jews, Christians and Muslims share the Ten Commandments that are the foundation of law and principles of behavior. Freedom, justice, equality, divinely ordained if you will, for believers and those who are not. Everyone is to be treated the same.
So how are we doing? What happened to our Divine guardian in the last four years or so? Or in the last 50 years? Did someone mug him/her? Did God get fed up with us?
Or, have we abandoned the nexus of our nation? Do we merely purport the faith? Do we walk the talk or merely talk it?
Even those who are agnostic or who claim to be atheist are free to think as such, thanks to our faith in government and the founding document that propounds the importance of living a good life by the measure of a higher standard than merely the doings of we human bipeds.
As a nation do we put those values first? Or have we turned "God" into an ideological or political tool?
I heard a good preacher say, "God is not swayed by our rhetoric or political speechifying?" The principle of strength upon which we premise our right to be a nation, and the guide for the manner in which we will live, has to do with a higher order of things, a power that is just and that knows our intentions.
- What is a nation with a Divine heritage to make of people who do not believe the Covid virus is real?
- Or who flaunt precautions that protect others, including those most at risk?
- Or who do not believe the election results?
- What does a Godly people think of children pulled away from parents, and forced to sleep on aluminum blankets in cages?
- Or of those who approve of political behavior that causes harm, fosters division and hate?
- How can a government vested in a Holy Creator fail to legislate assistance to millions who are unemployed, or the 1 in 4 American children who are food insecure, or people who must decide between food, or rent, or medicine?
- How is a nation under God to react to a man who desecrates honor, tradition, peaceful transfer of power, undermines belief in our system, perpetuates credibility destroying mass lies? And what are to do about those adore him and believe those lies?
a nation endowed
A people who call down a God of the ages, who invoke that divine claim, who swear allegiance, and who promise to navigate by virtues of a holy benefaction must answer true- how are we going to rehabilitate? How are we going to bridge the divide? How do we find a truth or settle on fact?
Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation is a start.
He suggested Americans do "humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience...and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union."
Healing the wounds of the nation will be hard and challenging, but it is noble and honorable work. It is something every citizen can and should do.
In future posts we'll take a closer look.
In our previous age of division, Lincoln drew strength from the hymn Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory. There are lines in the second verse that push us to be honest about our commitment to truth and justice
"God has sounded for the trumpet that shall never call retreat and is sifting out all human hearts before the judgement seat..."
Truth matters. Justice will prevail. It is in the nations DNA.We are the agents.
Stay well. See you down the trail.
Saturday, August 29, 2020
Sucker's Reality
and therein is the source of my consternation. I liken this to explaining the fog to my grandchildren.
It can move in quickly and paint blue skies with a muted and damp grey. Sunshine and cheer can be enveloped in a shroud, rapidly.
Welcome to Trumpworld!
It was a carnival of side show hustlers, con artists, weird creatures (why was Kimberly Guilfoyle shouting?) violations of the law, twisted logic, liars and even better liars, shades of Mussolini and Cry for Me Argentina, but slickly produced with an emphasis on optics and a fireworks display.
Melania was the default hero as she spoke with a degree of compassion about the victims of the virus her husband helped to kill by his ineptitude, arrogance and imperial ego.
She was certainly the best of the Trumps who seemed to dominate the speakers list. Don Jr still has the world wondering what he was on or if his power drinks were laced with lab cocaine and/or amphetamines.
Many have praised Mike Pence for being able to say the President's name so many times while his lips remained firmly attached to his bosses butt, in the kisses required to stay in his good graces.
Democrats are threatening to go after Trumpworld for their disrespectful abuse of the White House, the violation of 200 years of presidential tradition to not use the people's house for political spectacle, and for a potential violation of the Hatch Act. They should investigate and if need be prosecuted, even if the President's Chief of Staff says "no one outside the beltway cares about the Hatch act."
Trump as violated and offended, disrespected and trashed Presidential custom, behavior, deportment and protocol so many times all of his predecessors are either appalled or spinning in their graves. And he is the least qualified, most unfit, and probably the dumbest of the lot. He is also a minority president who has lied to the American people, documented and fact checked, thousands of times.
So when you have all of that as the fodder for a national convention, historically, without a platform, without inviting any former President or Presidential Nominee, and when many of his Quisling congressional cowards avoided even showing up, you know it's going to be a weird show.
When you put a man who ran a fraudulent University, went broke running a gambling casino, bankrupted an airline, couldn't get loans from legitimate banks, was bank rolled by Russian Mafia, lost money selling steaks, lost money selling his own deal making book, lost money selling clothing, is an avowed racist, a certified tax cheat, a bunko artist, golf cheat, sexual predator, serial liar, intellectual light weight, surrounded by advisors who are now convicted felons, what can you expect but the disaster we face and a convention that would run away from truth and reality?
It was and is a sucker's reality. Anyone surprised?
Some are pleased by his "tax cut," mostly the upper income levels. Some like that he has stripped and cut regulations, giving some businesses a pass, while allowing more junk into the air, water and land. He's turned government watch dog agencies into patsies for industry and has decimated the State Department and Security and Intelligence Agencies, where experience and expertise used to matter to help keep us and the world safe.
On balance even those presumed positives do not overcome the damage he has done. How hard should it be to see and hear him warn about a nation where violence in the streets would be the status with Joe Biden, when that violence in the streets is happening on his watch, in his term and in many instances is because he has fanned racism, white supremacy and looks the other way at police killing unarmed Black people.
If we had a president up to the job there would have been a more sensitive response to the kind of violence done by cops this year. Remember Obama's battle with the NRA-a money trough for Republicans? If we had a president up to the job, we would have responded to the Covid crisis with a plan and strategy. If we had a president up to the job, we would have better managed the economic impact.
If Trump kept his word, all of us would be better off economically, more secure, coal miners would be back to work instead of having lost more jobs, there would be more factory jobs, the opioid crisis would have been handled, etc.
So, the convention that I watched was as phony as the ginned up make believe expertise Trump acted in his television series.
Those folks, and those who defied social distancing, the wearing of masks and safety precautions while abusing the White House are his nation. They are suckers and they part of a sucker's reality and the sad thing, the bad thing, the frightening thing is they don't seem to mind living in a world where you don't need or use a brain.