12/20/2018

A Father's Lesson

Robert J. Szydlowski, November 15, 1930 - December 7, 2018

When my mom was sick, my dad kept imploring her to get up and keep moving. It was his sweetly desperate attempt to make sure the moving never stopped. But sweet as it may have been, I always wondered how he would respond when it was his turn. Well, let’s just say he walked the walk. Seriously, how many people confined to a wheelchair, too weak to stand – too weak to even lift their legs into the wheelchair footrests – and tied to oxygen tanks would allow, let alone demand, that they be carried downstairs to the Polish Village for lunch, spend five hours at the casino, attend mass and the Usher/Daughter Christmas party, watch the Lions, enjoy a shrimp dinner with his family and entertain his work buddies while Facetiming another in from Florida all AFTER receiving the Last Rites? His last weekend was just this side of Weekend at Bernie’s, with the only exception being that Bernie was calling the shots.

It seems only appropriate that the first person mentioned in my dad’s eulogy was my mom because like Hope and Crosby, Lennon and McCartney or Ricky and Lucy, Bob and Joanne were meant to be together - and not just in a way where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. It was more than that. They were something special, a perfect, transcendent complement to each other.

I’ve long said that my mom taught us how we could be – finding the humor in everything, teaching us to laugh – especially at ourselves – and to understand that no matter how bad things might get, someday they would make a great story.

Meanwhile, my dad taught us how we should be. Honest, disciplined, generous, faithful, humble. Those lessons often came via his one-line lessons on life, such as the time he gave Pam money to buy school supplies. When she returned, he asked for his change, to which Pam replied, “But dad, it’s only 6 cents.” To which my dad replied, “Yeah, but whose 6 cents is it?”  The lesson? If it’s not yours, it’s not yours to decide.

Or the time he stood watching quietly as I subtly improved my lie before chipping up to the green. Only after we’d putted out and were walking off the green did he say, while looking straight ahead, “How will you ever know how good you really are if you don’t play by the rules?” The lesson: It doesn’t matter what you accomplish if you don’t do it the right way.

And sometimes those lessons were passed on in a single word that I think only six of us in this room ever heard him utter: “No.”

But more often than not, those lessons were delivered through his actions – actions that made it seem he was incapable of saying “no.” His 56 years as an usher at St. Kieren’s, quietly served. His selflessness in taking care of his mother and her sisters when all he wanted to do was travel in retirement with my mom. Or arranging for a car for a soldier recovering from war wounds in a Philippine hospital, simply because he could. We all have such stories of his selflessness.

It was the humility inherent in all those acts that was probably my dad’s defining trait. His favorite movie was Rudyard Kipling’s “Gunga Din,” and he would frequently quote the line, “You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din.” Just by chance, my favorite poem is Rudyard Kipling’s “If,” which includes the line

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch

I can think of no better way to describe my dad. He could certainly walk with kings – if he had a problem with his retirement benefits, he didn’t call HR, he called the CEO of GM. When I showed him how Jefferson’s high school stats compared with that year’s top pick in the draft, he promptly sent those stats to Dave Dombrowski, President of the Detroit Tigers. Dave Dombrowski responded, expressing his appreciation for my dad’s love of his grandson and a promise to check Jefferson out – with the Tigers’ head of scouting copied on the reply.

When he retired, he received letters from auto executives and government ministers from around the world, including one from Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Commerce, Malcolm Baldridge, thanking him for his work on behalf of the US auto industry and the American people.

So, yes, he could walk with kings.

But, to me, far more important was his way with crowds, and nowhere could that be better seen than at a Tigers game. Anyone who ever attended a game with my dad knows he was the King of Comerica Park, greeted like a returning hero by everyone from the time he pulled into the parking lot until he got to his seat. My most memorable moment – perhaps the most memorable of all my memorable moments anywhere with dad – took place when he was taking Hannah, Jefferson and me to a game. And I am so, so grateful the kids were there to see this. As we were pulling into the lot, the parking attendant – a rather large, young, black woman – reached into the car to give my dad a hug, while telling us, “I sure do love your daddy!” That wasn’t what I was expecting, so I waited until we pulled away to ask what that was all about.

My dad simply said, “Oh, she just graduated from dental hygiene school and I got her a card and a gift. I just want to support stuff like that.”

To my dad it was no big deal. Just a simple card and gift. But it was so much more. It wasn’t the card or the gift. It was that he had taken the time and interest in a parking lot attendant, a young woman like hundreds and thousands of others we all meet and dismiss every day. But not my dad. To him, she was SOMEBODY.

That is my dad’s lesson and his legacy. King or commoner, CEO or parking lot attendant, we are no better and no worse, no more and no less, than anyone else. We all matter.

So, while Gunga Din might have been thought a better man than Cary Grant or Colonel Weed, or whoever the character was my dad quoted, I can honestly say, in the true spirit of the way you lived your life, Dad, that there was no man better than you.

11/26/2018

When Do We Finally Say Enough?

I want to ask each of us to look into the mirror and into our own hearts. And to be honest with ourselves, if not with each other.

When Donald Trump announced his candidacy by stating those coming from Mexico were rapists and drug smugglers, assuming “some” were good people, meaning most in his mind were not good people, did you speak out against it for the lie that it was, or did you look the other way – or worse, accept that it was true?

When he referred to those arriving at our border this past summer as an “infestation,” were you repulsed by the dehumanizing ugliness of the term, disgusted that words meant to describe rodents and cockroaches were used to describe our fellow human beings, or did you look the other way – or worse, agree it was an apt description?

When we ripped families apart, sending infants and toddlers hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles from their parents, did you suffer a pain in your gut and an aching in your heart for the cruel, inhumane act done in our name, or did you look the other way – or worse, feel it was justified?

And when our government tear-gassed toddlers in diapers at our border, did you recognize we were crossing a line, where our fear and anger at others was turning us violent against mothers, fathers and children, or did you look the other way – or worse, cheer because you felt it was about time?

If you are not, finally, among the repulsed, I need to ask what it will take. When do you say enough is enough? Because this is how it happens. This is how it always happens. First we accuse others of being the source of our pain – our joblessness, our low pay, our crime. Then we paint with a broad brush, telling lies about the evil of those “others.” Then, we begin to see them as something less than human. It makes it easier to accept inhumane acts because, well, how can one be inhumane to one not really human. And all along, we look the other way, or worse we cheer. We are doing it to men, women and children along our border. It’s been done to men, women and children as long as man has created borders real and imagined between us and "them."

How else would nations that gave us Confucius and Tchaikovsky and Einstein fall under the spell  of men like Mao and Stalin and Hitler. Simple. They start with small insults, desensitizing us to the larger atrocities to come. And by the time those atrocities come, we don't recognize them for the horrors they are. We are witnessing just such a progression in our own backyard, done in our name. So the question again, is when do we say enough? Is it when we attack children. Is it when we tear them from their parents? Is it when we refer to them as vermin? Or is it when we lie about them in the first place. If you haven’t taken a stand yet, it is not too late. But if you once again choose to look the other way, understand that you are an enabler – and well on the way to becoming just as much an accomplice as anyone in history who chose to simply look the other way.

11/01/2018

Toward a More Perfect Union

America is not perfect - it never has been. Our founding fathers understood that, which is why the Preamble to our Constitution states it's purpose is to form a more perfect union. We have been faithful to that promise, moving steadily, if haltingly toward that more perfect union. That progress has included the end of slavery, the end of separate but equal, the recognition that internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII was an abomination. It's meant recognizing Joe McCarthy for the shameless demagogue he was and Martin Luther King for the transcendent figure he was. It's meant giving women the vote, an African-American the presidency and gay Americans the right to share their life and love like everyone else.

It is the nation that saved the world from two global wars and sought no land or treasure in return, only peace and liberty for both the victorious and the vanquished. It ensured stability for trade, safe harbor for those faced with oppression, and armed reassurance to those faced with a Soviet threat across their border. As a result, the world has enjoyed the most peaceful seventy years in human history. Mankind has the United States of America, and the generosity and sacrifice of it's people, to thank for that.

The arc of our history is as clear as it is dramatic. We have an opportunity to keep America on its path and pedestal, serving as a beacon and example to the rest of the world. We can seek to be generous and open or selfish and closed. We can be confident and resolute or fearful and vindictive. We can believe in the future, or long for a past that never was. The choice we make will determine whether we continue to be the America the world seeks to follow, or a nation unrecognizable from which the world turns away. That opportunity, that choice presents itself this Tuesday.

Vote.

10/27/2018

The Ugly Underbelly and the Right Side of History, Pt II

It's common to ask when do we start to put our foot down. Is it when a candidate smears an entire ethnic group with lies of a rapist, drug-smuggling culture? Is it when he attacks the immigrant parents of a soldier who fell in defense of his adopted country? Is it when he enables racist white supremacists by equating them with the good people protesting against them. Or is it when bombs start showing up on his opponents' doorsteps?

But perhaps we are asking the wrong question. Maybe we should be asking when do we finally stop fighting? When do we tire of standing up to hate and lies? When do we become numb and no longer realize how abnormal this behavior is? When does it become so normalized that those standing in opposition are tarred as the hateful, divisive ones?

Throughout history, tyranny has been enabled through the madness of crowds, where, in an "Emperor has no clothes" sort of way, a small group buys into an otherwise untenable lie, then bullies others into first fearing to call out the lie, then ignoring the lie, eventually forgetting the lie and finally accepting the lie as truth.

All one need do is watch the denial from conservative corners of the media regarding the legitimacy of the recent bomb attacks, the authenticity of the bombs or the true motives of the accused bomber to see the madness of crowds at work - all while the president's popularity nears its all-time high.

So the question is not when do we start to fight, but how in the world can we stop? This is not normal. It wasn't normal in 2015 or 2016 or 2017. And it is not only not normal, it is not right - no, it is flat-out wrong - in 2018. So, if you felt Donald Trump was wrong when he first announced but now think he's not that bad, understand that he hasn't changed, you have. Is that a change you are comfortable with? And, if this was a "right side of history" election in 2016, as it is proving to be a right side of history moment today, which side of history will you, your kids and your grandkids be able to say you were on when it mattered most? Will you be able to say you held true to your beliefs, your principles, or will you look back and say you were one that looked the other way, or worse, caved and enabled the further descent into Trumpian intolerance, anger and fear?

I think you know on which side I proudly stand.

4/25/2018

My 14 Day Affirmative Challenge


I have often been told I should spend more time outlining what I believe, rather than what I oppose. Therefore, I am going to challenge myself to outline affirmatively what I believe each of the next fourteen days. While this may lean more toward principle, values and foundation than actual policy prescription, it forms the basis for whatever policy prescriptions I might support (or oppose).

Day 1
We must put aside identity politics on the left and "us vs. them" politics on the right, instead living up to our nation's founding creed that all men (and all women of all races, creeds and colors) are created equal. Let us respect what makes each of us unique, but celebrate that which unites us.

Day 2 
We must engage those we disagree with in a battle of ideas. It is fine to question the media, it is fine to question those we disagree with. It is even fine to question faith. But it is not fine to immediately dismiss those with whom we disagree simply because we disagree. Instead, we must engage them in a search for understanding and common ground using the rights to freedom of speech, press and religion enshrined in the First Amendment, otherwise we will find ourselves engaging each other using the rights enshrined in the Second. We cannot permit that for a house divided against itself cannot stand.

Day 3
We must recognize the difference between ends and means. Most of what we argue about - limited government, redistribution of wealth, free markets, regulation, taxes, spending – are simply means to an end. The ends we seek as a nation are enshrined in the Preamble to the United States Constitution:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

If we are the Constitutionalists we claim to be, let’s begin first with the end in mind - and let that mind be an open one as we seek how best to attain the true vision our founding fathers had for this great experiment in self-government.

Day 4
It is important we recognize that the era of general peace and prosperity the world has enjoyed since the end of WWII is largely due to our nation’s efforts and investments in global affairs. Human endeavors are subject to the laws of nature, one of which – the Second Law of Thermodynamics – states that the universe trends toward disorder without an input of energy. We can argue whether it’s fair that the U.S. must supply a disproportionate amount of the resources required to maintain order, but we must recognize that whatever the financial cost we have borne to maintain that order is far preferable to the tragic human cost that has been, and must be, paid to restore it.

Day 5
We should recognize that neither free markets, nor government are the panacea nor evil that some make them out to be. Both have their place and their drawbacks, with each serving as another important check and balance in our system of self-governance. Free markets naturally resist the imposition of an overbearing government that would limit human endeavor and ingenuity, while government restrains the worst in human nature that often manifests itself in the exploitation of free markets for personal gain at the expense of workers, customers and society.

Day 6
History shows that long before tyrants seek to confiscate guns, they first discredit the elites, academics and truth-tellers. Whether Lenin’s attacks on the intelligentsia, Mussolini’s promise to “drenare la palude” (drain the swamp) or Hitler’s attacks on the Lugenpresse (lying press), each first seized control of the “truth,” twisting it to quell dissent before seeking control of arms. Once in control of the narrative, the government could then act with impunity and the people obeyed passively. We must therefore learn from history and hold our First Amendment rights in at least as much esteem and defend them as unwaveringly as those in the Second, lest we find ourselves armed to the teeth with nothing left worth defending.

Day 7
We must rediscover community. We are a nation of immigrants, millions of people who left home, family and congregation to seek a better life in America. But once here, they settled in places reminiscent of home - Chinatown, Little Italy, Hamtramck - where they formed communities in the truest sense of the word. Their children then took advantage of the educational and economic opportunities afforded them, settling into lifelong careers that placed many in the same home, parish and community for a lifetime, leading to lives with a far richer texture than many enjoy today. Today's lack of community has turned us into a nation of seekers full of angst, unsettled by change and uncertainty as we create more change and uncertainty in search of...what?

Family, friends and community are far more important than the latest smartphone or larger flatscreen TV. We must take care of our families - and wealth allows us to attack many ills our forebearers suffered - but we must not sacrifice our connection to others in pursuit of wealth, either individually or collectively. It is only through connection to people who matter that we can truly find Life, Liberty and Happiness.

Day 8
Emotions win elections, but we must acknowledge that not all emotions are healthy. Confidence, optimism, resolve and compassion are foundations for both a healthy life and healthy society. Fear, anger, mistrust and selfishness are not. We can be vigilant without being fearful, compassionate without being weak, resolute without being bullies. Let's base our politics - the means to the ends we seek - on healthy emotions, while looking into our own hearts and minds to purge emotions detrimental to the health of democracy and the soul of society.

Day 9
Compromise is not a dirty word. The United States itself would not exist had our founding fathers not compromised on the powers of the presidency, the structure of Congress. the counting of slaves in electoral and Congressional apportionment and the inclusion of a Bill of Rights. It was imperfect, but the alternative would have been a continent of potentially hostile nation-states. We must learn from their lesson that imperfect agreement, rather than perfect obstinance, is the only path to a more perfect union.

Day 10
With rights come responsibility, and among the most important responsibilities is to remain informed. This means studying history, seeking hard journalism and perusing sources we do not necessarily agree with. History gives us an understanding of where we've been and how actions have real consequences. Hard journalism is history's first draft, giving us insight into where we are. And differing opinions act like resistance training for the mind, keeping us sharp and flexible as we try to discern where events might lead. Wisdom can only rise from thoughtfully considered, fact-based knowledge. Therefore, facts matter, knowledge is good and the wisdom they can deliver should be our goal and our guide.

Day 11
Civil is the root word of civilization. Therefore, to succeed and sustain society, we must learn (or relearn) to be civil with one another. That begins with respect, not only for others but for ourselves, for it is impossible to respect others without self respect. It is possible to question and criticize respectfully, and when we ourselves are the target of vitriol and disrespect, we must learn to turn the other cheek. It is hard, but it's also why walking away or seeking the high road is a sign of strength of character and self esteem. Let us be strong - resolute - in demanding civility of ourselves and our public officials.

Day 12
We must tread lightly regarding religious faith and politics. While many of our founding fathers were deeply religious, they were also wary of mixing faith and politics. If the two are to cross paths, we would be well-served to turn to Lincoln for guidance. His Second Inaugural, regarded by many as the finest speech in US political history, surpassing even Gettysburg, could easily be mistaken for a Sunday sermon. Yet, it was far from an infusion of faith into politics, where one leans on God to impose one's beliefs to control the behavior of others. Instead, it was an attempt to frame the Civil War and future turmoil as God's price for the sin of slavery. It was faith as a path to understanding rather than a path to power. Those are two very different applications of faith. Lincoln's example was faith as a foundation of life itself, outside of politics, which is precisely where it should remain.

Day 13
Values are the basis for culture. That is true of a team, an organization or a society. Therefore, the values we expect of our elected leaders will become the basis of our culture. Falling into the trap of believing all politicians lie, cheat and steal will make it so. Conversely, if we make moral character built on values of honesty and integrity, rather than politics and policy, the minimum threshold upon which we choose our leaders, and hold them accountable for same, we will see government and society reflect those values - from our local boards and councils to Washington, D.C.

Day 14
Day 14: Defending democracy demands that we defend the institutions that make it possible, the institutions upon which it relies. These are the rule of law, free elections, a free press, the separation of powers. I've said it often, but when faith in banks is destroyed, banks fail. When faith in currencies is destroyed, currencies fail. And when faith in the institutions of democracy is destroyed, democracies fail. We must defend those institutions. Not blindly - nothing should be defended blindly - but when they are attacked we must question the motive of those attacking them and consider the charges with as clear and open a mind as possible. And if those charges are the least bit suspect, we must defend those institutions as though our lives, liberty and happiness depends upon it. Because they do.

3/13/2018

Education Must Serve All, Lest It Serve None

In her 60 Minutes interview Sunday night, Secretary of Education Betsy Devos stated she has not visited failing schools because she wants to study what is working at successful schools. I understand the logic behind visiting such high-performing schools and championing their innovative endeavors. However, this is where a purely free-market approach to education raises its greatest threat. That's because every successful free market endeavor must segment the general public and seek to serve a specific subset of that market. Our public schools cannot - and must not - do the same. They must serve all students, regardless of geography or demography.

Thus, it is imperative that we study not only what works in successful schools, but what is behind the failure in less successful schools. The programs that work in good schools may be successful not so much because of the program itself, but because of the audience it serves. What works in Brentwood may not work in the Bronx or in an opioid-afflicted rural community. There may be factors beyond the lack of the proper program that stunts achievement.

I understand the logic and potential merits of school choice, but we must be careful that we do not do to our students what we have done to our young athletes, which is to create a system of "select" programs that do a wonderful job of serving those with the means and motivation to participate and the parental support to enable such participation, but leave behind a larger group of children with poorer instruction, fewer peers to serve as outstanding role models and measuring sticks and the stigma of being disposable.

Our nation is already well down a troubling road of creating an insurmountable chasm between haves and have-nots. The single best way to close that gap and ensure not only a healthy generation of children, but a healthy society is through universal, quality education. Studying only what works without identifying what is wrong is akin to studying disease by ignoring the sick and studying only the healthy. We can't ignore half the population. Public education must work for all students, or it will wind up working for none of us.

3/01/2018

Life in the NRA's USA

In 1975, Lynyrd Skynyrd released Saturday Night Special, a song about the iconic six-shot revolver that left no doubt the band questioned the value of a weapon good for nothing but to "put a man a-six feet in a hole." That same year, my high school freshman civics class held a series of debates on the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I was assigned the Second Amendment.

I do not recall if I had to take the pro or con on the amendment. I do not recall if the debate centered on the individual right to possess firearms, if it centered on the intent of referencing a well-regulated militia, or if it centered on the pros and cons of adding the amendment to the Constitution in the first place.

What I do recall, however, was that as a public high school student, school shootings were not part of the conversation. The thought never even entered our minds. Why would they? Such events, if they took place at all, were so rare as to be neither part of the public discourse nor public consciousness. We didn't think about them because they didn't happen. What was in the public consciousness - and what was a central part of the overall discussion on crime and violence - were those Saturday Night Specials, so-called because they were the weapon of choice for burglars, drug dealers and spurned lovers who often found reason to use said weapons to resolve a drug deal gone bad or mete out justice on an unfaithful partner, often on a Saturday night.

The results of our high school debate are irrelevant. But what is relevant is where that larger societal debate on Saturday Night Specials took us, because suggestions to register those weapons began the NRA's shift from an advocate of gun safety to one vociferously defending and arguing for the individual right to own a gun. The NRA warned us those early suggestions of registration were the beginning of a dreaded slippery slope.

Time covers show the evolution of US firearms from 1968-2012
It was a slippery slope, alright, but not the one of ever tighter registration, restriction and eventual gun confiscation that the NRA warned about. Instead, it was the slippery slope of ever increasing exploitation of fear to justify the right and need to possess guns. The gradual but steady portrayal of our government as an evil threat to arm ourselves against using the guns protected in the Second Amendment, rather than to engage via the rights enshrined in the First. The NRA raised funds warning of jack-booted government thugs coming to take away guns. They lobbied for lax Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms enforcement of existing laws. They fought restrictions on the sale and firepower of guns. They enabled and encouraged the growth of gun shows where background checks often pay mere lip service to the concept and the gun trade became the equivalent of model trains - a hobby with an insatiable thirst for cooler, more realistic accessories that leaves a small, but significant subset living in an unhealthy fantasy world where they are defenders of truth, justice and the American Way.

Gun shows have turned the American arms race into a hobby - or vice versa
Meanwhile, we adapted to the new publicly-held firepower. We installed security cameras and metal detectors at airports, courthouses, football stadia and more. We began inspecting purses and backpacks when entering concerts and ballgames. We are witnessing the militarization of our local police forces. And now, the NRA is using those examples to argue that our schools are "deserving" of the same protections. That our schools deserve metal detectors, surveillance cameras, inspections, armed guards, armed teachers. That to do any less is neglect and a dereliction of our duty to our children. Their term of choice for what they envision is "harden."

There is another term that describes the NRA's vision of America.

Police state.

Bottom line, we are allowing those with the weapons to dictate how we are to live our lives. Therein lies the sad irony of the NRA's forty-plus year fight for gun rights in the name of preserving liberty. In pursuing those rights, they have created a society that is less free, less secure. The NRA's world is Orwellian in the purest sense, where words mean the opposite. Guns mean safety. Surveillance ensures liberty. Inspections deliver freedom.

Some liken what we are witnessing to the proverbial frog in the slowly warming pot, where bit by bit, we cede our real freedom - the freedom to move about without worry of harm or the scrutiny of unseen watchful eyes, the freedom to send our kids to school without fear - until one day we realize the world we've created is precisely the dangerous dystopia from which those guns promised to protect us.

A 2017 NRA ad warns of evil forces in and outside of government

In some ways, however, what we are witnessing is more like a pressure cooker. The growing concentration of guns in the hands of fewer people, fueled by NRA warnings against dark forces inside and outside of government risks not just our safety, but society itself. In the NRA's world, not only is the government something to be viewed as sinister, but so are any who question the motives of the self-proclaimed righteous. The media, Hollywood, protesters and liberals are all presented as enemies of liberty. It is the classic "us versus them" construct, whereby the NRA is not only encouraging the development of a heavily armed, unregulated civilian army, but is also creating an enemy against which they must prepare to do battle. With a complicit conservative media fueling the flame, anger simmers and pressure builds. It is doubtful those weapons will remain forever sheathed. People looking for a fight are rarely disappointed. What the triggering event might be is a mystery, but just as pilots are warned of the "moth effect," whereby they fly towards objects they fixate upon, so should we beware that those fixated upon a righteous battle with evil adversaries will find those adversaries and be drawn towards - and into - just such a battle.

God help us if they do. The thought of an angry, disorganized mob of self-styled patriots who fancy themselves modern-day Minutemen, but lacking modern-day Washingtons, Jeffersons and Madisons to back their fervor with intellect and principle, leading a revolution against the United States of America does not lend itself to images of desirable outcomes. It could end quickly in a more serious, though no less decisive, Apache helicopter/A10 Warthog version of Indiana Jones and the guy with the sword. It could end with large parts of like-minded military units joining in to take on our government. Or, it just might never end. It's impossible to predict what life, politics or our system of government would look like on the other side of such an uprising, but it is hard to believe it would be an improvement upon the greatest experiment in liberty and democracy the world has ever seen.

Which all begs the question - is this the path upon which we wish to continue? Do we want the NRA and the most heavily armed among us dictating that we must accept intrusion in our personal lives, inconveniences in our public places and occasional mass death so they can continue to arm themselves against our own government? Because that is what five decades of NRA advocacy and activism has delivered.  And their answer - their only answer - is more of the same. The word for that is insanity. It is time to stop. More guns are not the answer. In a civil society, they never are.

Our founding fathers gave us all the tools we need to protect us from an overbearing government with rights enshrined in the Constitution that do not require taking up arms. With a free press to keep us informed, the freedom to speak out as we see fit, the right to hold our government accountable through peaceable assembly and petition, all backed up by the might of the ballot box, we have all the power we need. But in our zeal for guns, fueled by a fear-mongering NRA, we've lost sight of that.  The first step is to end the fascination with guns and the fantasy that they are the tool of choice in defending us from ourselves, for we may wake up one day only to find those guns have done nothing but place us in an armed prison of our own making. That is hardly freedom's safest place.

2/18/2018

Bias, Facts and Lies

I've been a news junkie since I was ten or eleven years old. Like anything, the more experience one has the better one can evaluate what is good and what is bad about the subject of their passion. For most of my adult life, though I realized the mainstream press had a liberal bias in the stories they chose to cover and how they covered them, I also knew that they were careful in being factual. Still, I found comfort in conservative media (print, radio and TV) because they discussed those same facts through a conservative lens. Following in the tradition of William F. Buckley, their conservatism was based upon intellect and ideas, which permeated the discussion of the day's issues.

About ten years ago, however, something began to change. Instead of viewing issues through an intellectually conservative lens, conservative media began viewing and reporting everything through angry, often irrational eyes. In the process, finding something to be angry about took precedence over reason and fact. It wasn't long before it became an endless feedback loop, where a lie or distortion would be stated, callers and listeners would obsess on it, and the lie or distortion would take on a life of its own. A perfect example was the report that an Obama trip was costing $200 million per day. That originally appeared on an obscure website, but once Rush Limbaugh picked it up, it gained credibility even though it was flat out false. But the audience ate it up. Soon, such falsehoods became routine fodder for agitating and engaging conservative audiences.

That was the point when my lifelong attachment to the news made it apparent that conservative media was no longer trustworthy. Worse, as those lies and distortions gained a greater foothold, conservatism itself was no longer what it once was. Instead of being based upon ideas of personal liberty, responsibility and optimism, it became based upon emotions of anger and fear. I could no longer associate with conservatism or the Republican party. As Reagan had famously said of the Democratic Party, I now said of the GOP, "I didn't leave the party, the party left me."

Unfortunately, too many people never noticed the change, never realized they were being fed lies. Conservative media was no longer about discussing what was best for the country, but what was best for ratings - which they did cynically by pretending what they were doing was for the good of the country. Like passengers on a cruise ship with a derelict captain, a not insignificant segment of society are reveling in a journey they are blissfully unaware is charting a course for disaster.

All one need do is peruse social media to find how one can fall for that cynical, sad deception and argue that lies are fact. And now we find that Russia is helping sow some of those lies, making those who help propagate them complicit in aiding a sworn enemy. Fortunately, fifty years of following the news helps identify those lies as lies. I'll take the mainstream media's biased fact over conservative media's biased lies every day of the week, especially when those lies aid and abet our adversaries.

2/03/2018

The Real Question About Mueller

One of my wife's friends posted this question. Answers appreciated.

"Help me out here.  Robert Mueller signed up for Vietnam after graduating from Princeton.

As a Second Lt. in the Marine Corps he led the rescue of a trapped rifle platoon in the jungles of Vietnam and received the Bronze Star. He rarely talks about that or the wound in other action for which he received the Purple Heart. He then completed his tour of duty.

Mueller has been appointed to or held top jobs in the administrations of *all 5 of the last Presidents.* 

He was appointed to the Justice Department, as the head of the criminal division, under George H.W. Bush's administration. He was appointed a U.S. attorney by Bill Clinton. Then he was appointed the acting deputy attorney general by George W. Bush. One week before the Sept. 11 attacks President Bush appointed him director of the FBI.

After Mueller completed his 10-year term as FBI director, President Obama reappointed him for a 2-year term, which required a special act of Congress. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 100-0.

What in this man's record of bi-partisan appointments, military service, and being the unanimous choice of the U.S. Senate for one of the most vital positions in the land -  what would lead anyone to believe that he suddenly can't be trusted to do the right thing?"

2/02/2018

It's About Country, Not Politics

I've been a Republican since I was old enough to choose sides. My opposition to all that's going on is not driven by partisan preferences, but by the exact opposite - the commitment to put party aside to view events with an eye to what I see as truth.

Note that I have not quoted "Fire and Fury." I have not commented on Stormy Daniels. I prefer to share hard journalism pieces, rather than opinion pieces, though when I do share such pieces, they tend to be from voices that have a demonstrated history of conservative or non-partisan pedigree.

People like to denigrate me as a "liberal," and there is no doubt I hold some liberal beliefs (protecting our environment, taking a humane view of immigration, gay marriage, stricter limits on gun ownership), but that in no way makes me a Democrat. I have attended anti-Trump rallies and protested his appearances with my hand-made Republicans Against Trump sign, but there is much that Democrats espouse that I do not agree with (identity politics, the shutting down of opposing viewpoints on college campuses, what I view as the shortsighted insistence on higher minimum wages that make hiring the least employable more unaffordable, thus dooming many to a life of inconsistent employability).

No, my opposition to what is going on in Washington is due almost exclusively to what I see as the systematic undermining of our institutions of democracy. I've said it many times, when faith in banks is destroyed, banks fail. When faith in currencies is destroyed, currencies fail. And when faith in the institutions of democracy are destroyed - faith in a free press, faith in a robust and independent system of justice, faith in fair elections and faith in the rule of law - democracies fail. This president, now with the acquiescence and outright assistance of an obsequious Congress, is systematically working to destroy faith in all these and more.

So, no, my opposition does not rise from partisan prejudice but out of what I sincerely believe to be principled patriotism. I have been a student of politics and U.S. history since Nixon, Humphrey and Wallace battled each other when I was eight years old. I have never been so concerned about what is being done to our country and I place blame for that squarely on the president and those he has enlisted in his effort to protect himself at the expense of our country.

That being the case, I cannot and will not remain silent.