Social Commentary

One of my favorite movies is The American President with Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Michael J. Fox, and Martin Sheen. (And Martin Sheen then moved on to The West Wing. My most favorite television show ever. I would get confused about reality and The West Wing. I’d talk with friends as if what was happening in The West Wing was actually happening in the other West Wing.

Anyway, back to The American President. President Andrew Shepherd makes the most marvelously exceptionally swell speech about problems and solutions and fear and blame. I wish someone would recite this speech in the U.S. Congress right now. Maybe President Obama could channel President Shepherd. (President Shepherd even talked about gun control. And 20 years after that movie, this country allows the shooting of kids on college campuses, in downtown streets, in elementary schools, in homes…)

But I digress………

The point of this blog was Andy Shepherd’s statement: “Making you afraid. And telling you who to blame.” There’s a problem. People who talk about the problem (so many elected officials – and presidential candidates) arouse fear. Intentionally. And then tell us who to blame.

Let me say that again: Making you afraid of “it.” And telling you who to blame.

Do you play that game? Do you make others afraid and tell them who to blame? Does your organization? Do your elected officials do that? Does your government do that?

Maybe we need different elected officials. Maybe we need to radically change our governments and the people therein. Maybe we need to take a deep breath and stop the fear-mongering and the hate speech and blame game.

I want Jed Bartlett and Andrew Shepherd as president. Well, actually, I want Hillary Clinton.

By the way:  Wikipedia tells me that The American President is #75 on the American Film Institute‘s list of America’s Greatest Love Stories. Some of the other films on the list are: Casablanca (#1). Gone with the Wind (#2). West Side Story (#3). An Affair to Remember (#5). Pretty Woman (#21). When Harry Met Sally (#25.) An Officer and a Gentleman (#29). Titanic (#37). A Star is Born (#43). The English Patient (#56). Coming Home (#78). The Princess Bridge (#88). Dirty Dancing (#93). To name just a few! And I really enjoyed all of these.

P.S. And for those who don’t know, Aaron Sorkin wrote The American President and The West Wing. And the Newsroom, too. I wish that were still on.

Could we please just stop it?

How about that separation of church and state? Our founding fathers (and mothers, too, I bet) would be appalled at how much we violate that rather important rule.

Why don’t more people here in the US recognize that this country’s partnering of religion and politics sounds sooooooooooooooooo much like Sharia law. Why don’t more religious zealots and political posturers in the US of A acknowledge their own oppressive behavior?

I don’t want to hear about your religious beliefs. Keep your religious beliefs private. I don’t want your religious beliefs in my life. Keep your faith and your piety and your excessive religiosity out of my life and out of my government.

I’m interested in your actions about the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution. I want to witness your actions about basic human rights — and that includes people of color and women and homosexuals and the incarcerated. I want to hear how you’ll manage and control the excessive corporate power in this country and pay attention to community and families and poverty. What will you do about the inequities in our economy?

Thanks, Frank Bruni, for the great op-ed piece, “The G.O.P.s Holy War.” Enough with the holy warriors and holy Supreme Court activists and holy war politicians.

And all of you politicians stop saying “God Bless America.” I’m sooooooooooo tired of hearing that. Agnostics and atheists and spiritual people all have rights, too. Every time you say that, you remind me that the US of A is overly interested in religion and underly interested in competence.

Thanks to Sheena Greer.

I love her home page at Collude: Learn to kick ass. Hire me to kick ass. Be inspired to kick ass. WOW!

And read this great blog. She quotes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For example: “White people believe they have so little to learn.” She talks about life long learning and listening. She understands white privilege.

Read Sheena’s lovely blog. Yes, kicking some ass. Mine. Hers. And a bunch of yours, too.

I always used to say that I’d pick a progressive, feminist man over a conservative, anti-feminist woman. And I still would do that.

But when I read Katha Pollitt’s column…… I realized I must be careful.

And then I read Madeleine Albright’s op-ed about her “special place in hell for women who don’t support women.” Read it. Don’t just criticize Ms. Albright!

Please… All you women out there… Think about the status of women in the U.S. of A. Not good. Not good at all. The U.S. ranks 98th in the world for the % of women elected to the federal government. That’s down from 59th in 1998.

And then I read another article about progress and women and Hillary.

Please read Katha Pollitt‘s column, “Why Have I (Almost) Always Voted for the Male Candidate?”

It’s time — past time — to elect a woman president in the U.S. of A.

P.S. I believe in democratic socialism – like universal healthcare and universal childcare and so much of what European governments have…and Canada, too. But I believe in the expertise and experience and battles for healthcare and gender equity and and … displayed by the woman running for president right now.

“Bigotry and national security have, sadly, close and old ties in American history.” So says the first line in the January 4, 2016 editorial in The Nation magazine.

Yet, in my experience, U.S. people and our government don’t recognize and acknowledge our unpleasant history. Things like:

• “National-security concerns mixed with anti-Semitism delayed our acceptance of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi German.”

• “Racism combined with panic after Pear Harbor led to the internment of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans.”

• “Over the past decade, we’ve wrenched at least 2 million people from their families with a record-setting pace of deportation.”

• We’ve allowed people to die in the desert rather than allow them to cross the border. National security? Really? How about racism.

• Donald Trump plans to build tall walls and ban Muslims from entering the U.S., and “11 of the 13 GOP president candidates oppose allowing any Syrian refugees into the country at all.”

Here’s another rather terrifying (dare I say embarrassing) fact: According to research, “more Americans have been killed in domestic terrorist attacks by right-wing zealots than by jihadists since 9/11.”

Yet we won’t launch a much-needed war on guns. No other “civilized” nation has the gun violence we have. I think I might blog about what civilization means to me. Hmmm….

Our behavior reminds me of facism.  We make fun of Marie Antoinette saying to the poor clamoring for bread to feed their starving children, “Let them eat cake.”

Our U.S. Supreme Court allows the Koch brothers and their pals to invest more money than either the Republican or Democratic Parties to shape elections. My voice and yours just don’t count as much.

And on and on and on….. But I must curtail my anger today. I have work to do.

[All quotes — except “civilized” and Marie Antoinette – are from “A War on Guns,” The Nation, January 4, 2016.]

The US of A elected a black man for president. Amazing. Wonderful. And, honestly, I’m very proud. (Although I don’t believe this is a post racial society. I believe we are still a racist country. And it’s sad that we have to have another movement to end racism, Black Lives Matter. But I’m glad that some people continue the fight against racism.)

The US of A has the chance to elect a woman president. Amazing. Wonderful. And, honestly, I’d be very proud. But the sexism – obvious and apparent sexism and blind and unaware sexism – are as rampant as racism. (Maybe more rampant. Shirley Chisholm thought sexism was deeper than racism. She said: “As a black person, I am no stranger to race prejudice. But the truth is that in the political world I have been far oftener discriminated against because I am a woman than because I am black.”

I’m a big fan of Michael Moore and his work. Amazing. Wonderful. But honestly, I’m disappointed. Check out this insightful article about Moore and the way he talks about supporting Bernie Sanders. Michael Moore…justice activist…political lefty. Yippee – and I mean that honestly. But I’m very concerned – very very very concerned – about his “casual chauvinism.”

Even progressive men don’t seem to think the woman-president thing is that important. What an indictment. And I fear it’s true. Mr. Moore, how could you not mention the importance of electing a woman president in this country? You can still endorse Bernie. But you could recognize and acknowledge the gender bias in this country and mention “the first black man” and “the first woman” as equally important.

Let’s not be naive. Sexism is alive and well worldwide. And YES, in the US of A, too. Just like racism is. Research proves it. The UN documents it. And the references below are just the tip of a very big gender bias iceberg in the US of A.

• Women in the World: Where the US falters in quest for equality 
• Wait! When Don’t Have Equal Rights in the United States?
• The State of Women in America

And the sexism is so institutionalized in the US of A that women running for any office are at a disadvantage. Media bias against women. Societal bias against women. Yes. All true. And the references below are just the tip of a that same big iceberg.

• At the current rate of progress, it will take 500 years for women to reach fair representation in the U.S. government
• Research on Appearance Coverage of Women & Campaigns
• Check out Celinda Lake, one of the nation’s foremost experts on electing women.
• Men Rule: The Continued Under-Representation of Women in U.S. Politics

So back to the beginning of this morning’s rant…. I want Michael Moore – a progressive – to recognize that electing a woman president is just as important as electing a black president. And more important than electing a Catholic president or a divorced president or….

In 1973 – on January 22 – the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Roe vs. Wade decision, legalizing abortion in the U.S.

I was 25 years old. How old were you? Were you born yet? Do you know the stories?

And remember, the path to Roe vs. Wade made a major, critically important stop in Connecticut, with Griswold vs. Connecticut, which was decided June 7, 1965.

History is important for today and the future.

So I take risks because I can. I have these social commentary blogs. Yes. I know that social commentary on my business website might cause some potential clients to turn away. That’s okay. With my privilege, I can take risks that others can’t.

I sure love that Seth Godin. Check out these two social justice blogs of his: Getting ahead versus doing well and read Hiding, too.

Paul Krugman is my kind of economist. Check out this op-ed. And Thomas Piketty is my kind, too, I suspect. I bought his book and must read it soon. Although the situation will only make me angrier. So I have to spread out my anger.

Check out this interview with Robert Reich… “A vicious cycle of wealth and power threatens capitalism.”

If you’re interested in justice, subscribe to this compilation service...very justice oriented.

Also read the Transformation newsletter at OpenDemocracy. Justice activist Mike Edwards is the founder.

I hope you’re able to speak out. I hope that doesn’t put you at too much risk.

And here’s a shout out. To the gentleman sitting on the aisle next to me on Southwest airlines flying to Chicago on Sunday, 01-10. He asked me what I was writing on my laptop. And off I went into my love of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector … and then I began ranting about justice… my white privilege and that I could wear a hoodie without fear. He can’t. He’s a football coach at URI. He helps develop young men. Cool.

Did I ever tell you that?

Vietnam was my war. The war of my generation, my contemporaries, my friends, my brother.

And today was the day – in 1972 – when the U.S. stopped its heavy bombing of North Vietnam. We called it “Nam.”

I remember. And for those of you who don’t know that Nam…that war…Make sure you learn.

Check out the New York Times magazine, Sunday, December 27. Beautiful memorial – with stunning stories – about people who died in 2015. Artists. Civil rights heroes. Zapf dingbats inventor.

Moving. Inspiring. Another chance to learn about people who make our history. Moments of what it means to be human and humane.