The More Things Change

Since season four of Netflix’s superb series The Crown debuts this fall, my husband and I decided to get caught up by watching the previous season. As we made our way through the first episode, I couldn’t help notice how many parallels there are in today’s world compared with 1960s England.

The season opens with the election of a new prime minister, Harold Wilson. Wilson has led his Labour Party to victory by repudiating the scandal, corruption, and mismanagement of the Conservatives. Sound familiar? Several of Wilson’s speeches allude to the ills plaguing England at the time: “soaring land and house prices, race riots, sex scandals, large scale unemployment,” a massive trade deficit. It seems that, no matter the era or the nation involved, society suffers from seemingly intractable problems that governments try and often fail to address.

The sex scandal alluded to by Wilson is the Profumo affair that ensnared men at the highest levels of government. The episode suggests that Prince Philip himself may have been involved. I couldn’t help thinking of Prince Andrew being embroiled in the Jeffrey Epstein underage sex trafficking affair. And to boot, Philip is blackmailed by none other than a KGB spy living in the royal household. Russian interference, anyone?

But the most devastating parallel with today is the theme of truth and deception that runs throughout the episode titled “Olding,” a reference to the code name of the KGB spy going for years undetected in England’s seat of power. The palace’s art expert gives talks about how analyzing paintings can get at the ugly realities behind the coverups artists were sometimes forced to make at the behest of their benefactors.

Towards the end of the episode, Prime Minister Wilson, an economist, talks to the queen about his love of numbers. “They’re honest,” he says. “There’s no mystery or deception or allegory. What you see is what you get.” It’s a powerful moment between Wilson and Queen Elizabeth as well as a powerful statement of how important facts and transparency are to the running of a democratic society.

The Crown has been a fascinating take on the history of Queen Elizabeth’s reign in England. But it is also a thoughtful observer of modern times and the reality that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

A Great Sacrifice

Whenever we give without counting the cost or calculating the return,
we are learning to bear the beams of love.
– Robert Ellsberg, The Saints’ Guide to Happiness

Yesterday marked the 19th anniversary of one of the darkest days in our history. A weekday morning like any other turned into a horror, and thousands lost their lives. But amid the fear and danger, there were many heroes who gave all they had “without counting the cost.”

We owe a debt of gratitude to our first responders, who rush into harm’s way to save lives every day. On Sept. 11, 2001, 343 firefighters lost their lives in the towers as they tried to help the poor souls trapped in the burning, crumbling buildings. Police officers and EMTs also perished trying to help.

As I write this, firefighters are battling terrible blazes in Oregon and California. Photos show them sprawled on the hard ground, exhausted and spent, the adrenaline that must course through their veins as they brave the flames having finally left their system. Every day they risk life and limb to help save homes and lives.

Also as I write, medical professionals are risking disease and even death as they courageously help patients severely afflicted by COVID-19. They don their own version of battle armor each time they venture into the hospital and spend countless depleting hours helping others fight for their lives.

What do these heroes in our midst get in return for their indefatigable efforts? They certainly aren’t the best paid professionals in the world. They rarely get awards or ticker tape parades. Not for them is the glory of, say, a LeBron James. But perhaps they get a greater feeling of wholeness and purpose, a sense that their life has meaning.

In an episode of The Crown, Prince Phillip longs for the life of the Apollo 11 astronauts and for what must surely have been an extraordinary adventure setting foot on the moon. When he meets the fictionalized Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins, however, he realizes they are just ordinary young men, slightly goofy, awed by the grandeur of Buckingham Palace, and not at all given to philosophical marveling at the journey they have just made.

We can all be heroic in our own small ways when we make sacrifices for others, whether it be our families, our communities, or the greater good. We will not get a special prize when we wear a mask in public to protect others from possible COVID-19 transmission. We won’t get an award for working each week at the local food pantry helping feed the poor. And no one will applaud us for staying up all night with a sick parent or child. Instead, we will gain an inner light and peace that comes from knowing the true joy that giving all we have can bring.

Willful Ignorance

The man walks up to the outdoor seating area of the diner and waits. He has on jeans, a t-shirt, and a day old scruff of beard. Nothing remarkable. Then I notice the screen print on his shirt. It says: “Unmasked. Unmuzzled. Unvaccinated. Unafraid.” Charming.

The man is seated outside, so there is no issue with the statewide mask requirement. After a few minutes, however, he stands up and walks toward the entrance. He hesitates, then pulls out a mask and puts it on before entering the restaurant. “Tough guy,” I mutter to myself under my breath.

I find myself discouraged by the kind of willful ignorance that would inspire someone to wear such a sentiment on his clothing. This is not an innocent “I didn’t know any better” type of ignorance. It’s intentional and in your face. I was just glad there was no altercation at the restaurant where I was peacefully eating breakfast.

Anti-intellectualism began during the Eighties with the election of Ronald Reagan. While Democrats complained that Reagan was not the brightest light bulb in the pack, Republicans accused them of elitism. The GOP started courting less educated, less sophisticated voters, and filled them with disdain for book learnin’. Thus began a cycle of countering Democratic intellectual heavyweights with not so bright “men of the people” – first Clinton followed by Dubya, then Obama succeeded by You-Know-Who.

In every facet of society, conservative anti-intellectualism started to take hold. Anti-science movements by extreme evangelicals in Texas affected the education of every American kid since Texas is the textbook development center of the country. Suddenly evolution is just one theory out of many. A growing number of Americans on both the Left and the Right start to doubt the safety and efficacy of routine childhood vaccines. And Pluto is no longer a planet! (Oh, wait. That last one is, alas, true.)

Conspiracy theories are another feature of willful ignorance. The Obama government was attempting to spy on our children with the advent of the Common Core in education. Hillary Clinton is at the center of a pedophile ring operating out of a Washington D.C. pizza parlor. The Deep State is trying to destroy Donald Trump’s presidency. When Hillary Clinton complained about a “right wing conspiracy” against her husband Bill in the 1990s, Republicans scoffed. Now they are the party of QAnon, a fringe group that believes there is a Satanic cabal out to destroy Trump and the American way of life.

It is no mystery how a shallow and unintelligent man was able to capture the White House. He appeals to the lowest common denominator in society and makes people feel better about their lack of knowledge or intellectual curiosity. When the Atlantic recently reported that Trump had referred to deceased soldiers as “losers” and “suckers,” his response was, “I don’t read that magazine.” Shocker.

Those of us who care deeply about facts and truth need to counter this strain of willful ignorance in American society. Our first job is to remove this president and his Congressional enablers from office. Then we need to regain the intellectual high ground. It’s all very well and good to admit you don’t know what you don’t know. But it’s paramount to insist on finding out.

Rural Free Delivery

One of my least favorite assignments in college was to read a book about the history of the United States Postal Service. Sounds like a cure for insomnia, right? But what stands out in my memory is learning about the institution of Rural Free Delivery in the late 1800s.

Prior to that time, people who did not live in large cities were hard pressed to find ways to communicate with the rest of America. Sending letters and packages was time-consuming and expensive. And many farms and homes were virtually inaccessible. With the advent of Rural Free Delivery, there was a push to improve roads, and residents became more connected with the outside world.

Today we are witnessing a sort of crisis with the U.S. Postal Service, one mostly created by politics and a misunderstanding of the Post Office’s purpose. Never having been designed as a moneymaking institution, suddenly the government is demanding that it become economically competitive.

Meanwhile, rural America is bearing a large portion of the fallout from misguided cost-cutting measures by the current Postmaster General, a political crony of Trump’s. Putting aside the vote-by-mail crisis that threatens to disenfranchise millions of Americans, rural areas are facing terrible backlogs that have resulted in delayed delivery of prescription medication, plants, seeds, and even livestock that small farmers obtain through the U.S. mail. For instance, when Rhiannon Hampton of Maine received delivery of a carton of chicks, most of them were dead. (“Mail crisis hitting rural America hard,” Chicago Tribune, Aug. 25, 2020)

Rural Free Delivery came into existence because the government saw the need to provide a service to Americans despite the cost. Even today, rural areas have difficulty receiving adequate internet service and access to package delivery. The Postal Service is their lifeline. As South Dakotan Gaylene Christensen put it, “‘If these small rural towns lose their post office they lose their identity.” (Tribune) It is the height of irony that the very same people who voted for Trump are suffering under his leadership. I hope they consider that when they go to the polls in November.

Make Change, Not War

The looting and rioting in the city of Chicago early Monday did not happen in a vacuum. It was a response to the police shooting of a black man in the Englewood neighborhood earlier the night before. While it in no way excuses the violence and destruction, it’s important to understand the root of black citizens’ anger. No amount of peaceful protesting seems to move the needle at all on police abuse of black Americans.

That said, scenes of destruction in America’s cities are playing right into the hands of Republicans and Donald Trump, who is using fear to shore up his dismal ratings among voters ahead of November’s election. If we don’t want four more years of Trump, we need to stem the violence now.

In 1968, Richard Nixon, an eminently unlikable candidate and human being, rode to victory on a “law and order” platform that attracted voters tired of the rioting and civil unrest of the Sixties. Today we have the danger of history repeating itself. We have a grossly unfit president with no moral compass and an outsized ego that has made him a disastrous leader of the American response to the coronavirus pandemic.

At the same time, we are seeing 24/7 coverage of looting, burning, and violence in so-called Democratic-controlled cities on Fox News and other conservative media outlets. These images are powerful and scary. No one wants to see our public spaces defiled or our communities descend into lawlessness.

Donald Trump has already shown his willingness to send in federal agents to quell unrest. It’s important that we not give him four more years to sink America further into autocratic rule. Let’s dump Trump and then hold Biden’s and other Democrats’ feet to the fire to make the changes they are promising.

America is in this state because of racism and an income inequality that continues to widen. This won’t get better under a continued Trump administration. Let’s put down our weapons and use the most important one at the ballot box in November.

New Revolution

Tomorrow at our socially distanced barbecues, while we eat hotdogs and drink beer, most of us won’t think much about the significance of the date July 4. We know it is a day to celebrate American independence. But while watching fireworks, we don’t often think about how iconoclastic the Declaration of Independence was when it was written.

The American Revolution was a huge step in world civilization. Not only did 13 British colonies throw off the yoke of oppression, but they formed a government not seen in most of the known world: a republic. To be sure, that fledgling democracy was far from perfect. Our founding fathers’ biggest shortcoming was in allowing the scourge of slavery to make a mockery of the famous words “all men are created equal.” Yet the idea that the people themselves would be in charge of their own political destiny was a potent dream, and it spawned similar movements in other parts of the world.

Today we seem to be on the brink of another revolution. The demands for a reckoning with our racist legacy continue to grow, and the urgency cannot be denied. Forces both within and outside our borders insist on justice for black citizens. At the same time, the LGBTQ community is demanding that the rights afforded every citizen in the U.S. also be guaranteed to them. Women, religious minorities, and people of color are increasingly being elected to government office across our land. There is no going back to a time when white dominance was the unchallenged law of the land.

To be sure, there will be backlash. We see it in conservative reactions to protest in the same way we saw Nixon’s “silent majority” fight back against the activism of the 1960s. And there will also be excesses: riots, looting, toppling statues, tear gas. Once the fire of discontent has been lit, it is hard to control the flames.

Yet I believe in our country’s ability to change and grow. I believe in the next generation, who are not content to drift along with the stark inequities they see and are often victims of. This next American Revolution will not be fought upon the battlefield but in the hearts and minds of the populace and the political activism of the hour.

Let’s celebrate a better America this July 4 – with a determination to empower each and every individual member of our society regardless of race, color or creed. Let’s give true meaning to these famous words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 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.

 

Monumental Problem

I agree that the statues of Confederate leaders should be removed from public places. Men who fought for the right to keep human beings enslaved are not heroes. Nevertheless, the sight of mobs toppling monuments is disturbing and should not be tolerated.

There has been a movement in this country to disavow an American past of racism and genocide. Even commercial enterprises have developed a greater sensitivity toward the perpetuation of stereotypes and have removed such figures as Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and the Land o’ Lakes Native American figure from their brands. Nascar is no longer allowing the Confederate flag to be displayed at its racing events. This is progress. I can only hope that the infamous names of some sports teams are not far behind.

Similarly, some Southern states have begun to reckon with their racist past. The State of Mississippi, for example, recently voted to remove the image of the Confederate battle flag from its state banner. Many Confederate statues have been taken down, most of them by legal means. But the process of change is slow, and some protesters have decided to take it into their own hands to hasten the movement.

This is where I have a problem. Wholesale destruction of monuments and other artifacts from a culture reminds me of the destruction that occurred during China’s Cultural Revolution. The Communist government destroyed untold numbers of antiquities in its zeal to disavow a past of autocratic emperors and other imperial figures. The loss of these treasures can never be undone.

Similarly, in the past few weeks, we have seen protestors destroying statues of a myriad of historical figures, some of them part of the Confederacy, but some of abolitionists and even Ulysses S. Grant, who fought for the the Union side during the Civil War. We cannot allow mobs to take it into their hands to decide what is objectionable and what is allowable. In a democratic society, we have a process to make these decisions in a lawful way. However slow and frustrating that process may be, it is the only way to guard against anarchy.

I am not on the side of apologists who claim that removing Confederate statues is a way of erasing history. No one would expect Germany to tolerate statues of Adolph Hitler or other Nazi leaders in the name of preserving history.

But America is a nation of laws. Our president seems to have forgotten this fact, but we the people must remember it going forward. I am optimistic that future generations will see a better and more equitable America, and I urge our citizens to vote to make it happen.

Racial Tolerance Begins at Home

In the course of discussing an essay she was writing on racial segregation, my daughter revealed to me some disturbing instances of racist remarks and gestures she has endured as an Asian American. When so-called friends reveal their casually racist feelings to you, the sting is even greater. As I reflected on our conversation, I realized that my daughter’s thesis – that racial segregation fosters racism – is not the entire story.

I grew up in a predominantly white, middle class suburb adjacent to the city of Chicago. While my personal exposure to blacks was minimal, I never had feelings of animosity toward them or any other minorities. I rightly found racist jokes and stereotypes offensive. Once in elementary school, I saw that someone had written the N word on a desk, and I was horrified.

It occurs to me that the reason I didn’t harbor these prejudices was that my parents never spoke in pejorative terms about blacks or other minorities. More importantly, they believed and taught that every human being has intrinsic value and is worthy of respect. I have carried these values with me my whole life and have tried to impart them to my own children.

My daughter theorized that it’s a lack of exposure to each other that makes for conflict between races. Ignorance, she feels, is behind much of our fear and dislike of others who are not like us. Certainly there is much to be gained by mingling people of various cultures, ethnicities, religions and so forth. Yet it’s not the only way to foster racial tolerance.

Whether we live in a diverse or homogenous community, we can impart a progressive worldview to our children: one that sees the beauty in all of humanity.  We can refuse to allow hate and fear to govern our outlook on people of different races and ethnicities.

The first step, though, is to talk openly about race. This is something that minority parents do early on as a matter of course. White parents, however, are reluctant to mention race for fear that they will create divisions where their children had previously seen none. Yet it’s important to educate our children about our history of racial discrimination and prejudice. It’s important to help them see how institutional racism has disadvantaged people of color for centuries. We may claim “I don’t see color,” but we are being dishonest and disingenuous. And our kids will encounter racism in society whether we prepare them or not.

Best to begin teaching racial tolerance and understanding at home when our children are young and still want to listen to us. Like many things, our attitudes and beliefs begin at home. Let’s make our homes ones of acceptance and love for all people.

Best of Times

I have  always loved the first sentence of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That statement could be written about most any time in human history.

Lately things in our world seem very bleak. In the midst of a pandemic, we are confronting the realities of racism and massive unemployment. Our country seems hopelessly divided along partisan lines. COVID-19 has disrupted our medical facilities and worldwide efforts to vaccinate vulnerable populations from other deadly diseases.

Yet there is hope. For every negative brought on by the pandemic, people have found silver linings: more time with family, a slower pace of life, and a re-examination of priorities. The horrific killing of George Floyd has brought a flowering of discourse on the terrible legacy of slavery in America. Boarded up store windows adorned with hearts proclaiming that “Black lives matter” display this best of times/worst of times dichotomy.

Last night I watched the season finale of Call the Midwife, a series about nurse midwives tending to the needs of the humble residents in London’s East End in the 1960s. For nine seasons the show has depicted the evolution of medical knowledge, technology and societal attitudes about such issues as mental illness, disability, and unwed mothers. It reminds me that in so many ways, life has improved for human beings and continues to evolve. I’m sure doctors today would hate to have had to face a novel virus with the conditions present during the flu pandemic of 1918.

I had to laugh when I saw a meme with a photo of cars at the top of a roller coaster and the suggestion that since the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, everything has gone downhill.

Yes, we have some serious issues to deal with in our world. But we have also taken huge strides in our history toward making life easier, healthier, and more humane than ever before.

Let’s make this the best of times for each other, our children, and our children’s children.

 

 

America Burning

Scenes of broken windows and buildings on fire have dominated the news and our public consciousness for the past few days since a white police officer killed George Floyd, a black Minneapolis resident accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. We have been here before – far too many times and for far too long. The photo below is from 1965:

What I keep thinking about, though, is why the protests have been so widespread this time. With past highly publicized police abuse cases, the protests and unrest have occurred predominantly in the city in which the incident occurred: Baltimore and Ferguson come to mind. This time America saw the horrendous killing and exploded. Why?

I think one of the reasons is that the coronavirus pandemic has created so much fear, anxiety, and deprivation for so many people that the safety valve on people’s emotions just blew. Particularly in the black community, which has seen disproportionate fatalities and economic fallout from the disease, yet another instance of police targeting an unarmed black man was more than they could take.

But the larger answer is that we have suffered through almost four years with a president who openly foments racial animosity. Even before he made the disastrous (for us) decision to run for president, Trump was promulgating the infamous “birther” conspiracy, suggesting that President Obama was born in Kenya, not the U.S. Both during the presidential race and following his election, Trump continued to practice dog-whistle politics to reassure his white supremacist base that he was still their man. How else to explain his contention that there were “good people on both sides” of the infamous Charlottesville face-off between white nationalists and people protesting the glorification of Confederate leaders – a confrontation that led to death and mayhem.

President Trump has called African nations “shithole countries.” He has described black NFL players as “sons of bitches.” And most recently and infamously, he tweeted that the “thugs” protesting should be shot. Donald Trump’s rhetoric has caused a documented resurgence of hate crimes against minorities of all kinds.

And America has had enough.

Of course, much of the violence has had nothing to do with outrage against the injustice of what happened to Floyd and happens to blacks in America every single day. There have been numerous photos and reports of whites not involved with the protests coming in and causing destruction. When whites protest, police stand around passively and watch. When blacks do so, they are met with officers in full riot gear spoiling for a fight. 

Our president should be calling for justice for George Floyd. He should be appealing to Americans for peace and the ability to come together to solve the biggest stain on the soul of our nation. Instead he’s threatening to send the U.S. military into cities to quell the unrest. In short, he’s acting like a petty dictator in the greatest democracy in the world.

I think America has had just about enough of Donald Trump. Let’s remember that come November.