How Many Light Bulbs Does It Take To Change America?

Don Henley’s “The End of the Innocence” is playing as I write this because for the last few weeks (and more) that’s what’s happened for a lot us – those of us paying attention, those of us who don’t have the money or the heart to get lost in the Christmas hustle that feels so unimportant and unreal this year. We as a nation have been awash in waves of shame and pride: our own, each others, those of leaders and idols and ordinary people turned into symbols they never wanted to be.

Yesterday’s CIA “Torture Report” was so revolting it actually inspired bipartisan anger and shame in the Senate. We already knew “intensified interrogation techniques” (G-d save us from the danger of euphemisms) had been used after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the governmental zeal to preempt further assaults. But we didn’t how deeply, cruelly “intensified” they were, or for how long they went on, against so many people, and how ineptly and chaotically the process was handled. “This isn’t who we are,” said an aggrieved President Obama about the program approved by his predecessor. But it is. It’s a big part of who we are and have always been, in spirit, from the genocide of the Indians through Slavery, Jim Crow, Vietnam, and the deeply divided country we’ve become.

And from Ferguson to Staten Island to Cleveland (among others), the recent racial conflicts between police and young Black men (and a child) have made it plain that largely White law enforcement still doesn’t know how to cope with Black communities; that the Judicial System is equally broken and ignorant; and that Americans of all ages and colors are still capable of uniting in peaceful, nonviolent protest against the cancer of racism. Dirty waves of shame, cleansing waves of pride.

A lot of people – mostly White – thought the election of President Obama showed that racism was over in America, an idea that would be hilarious if it weren’t so treacherously untrue. I recall the young, rousing, Barack Obama speaking at the 2004 Democratic Convention saying there was no Black America or White America, just One America. I understood how much he wanted that to be so. I too am biracial and when I was still quite young, I believed it was my destiny, my responsibility, to be a communicator and a racial unifier, because I had a foot in both worlds. I never did figure out how to do that and, it turns out, neither has Barack Obama, even though he’s a whole lot smarter than I am and worked a million times harder.

The unfortunate, revealing, truth is Obama’s election fueled a resurgence of rampant, outspoken, unapologetic racism. I’m sure he expected some push-back, but I think even he was taken off-guard by how forceful it’s been. I don’t think he expected it would grind Congress to a halt, or lead a right-slanted Supreme Court to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act in the midst of a nationwide Voter Suppression Movement, or that he would be called an illegitimate president who is behaving like a king because he’s done the same kinds of things the White presidents did – mainly, behaving like The President.

As we enter a two-year campaign for the 2016 presidential election (please, shoot me now), the pundits are discussing the Obama Legacy, as if it can be assessed just like any other presidency. His legacy, for the record, is that he kept us out of another Great Depression, re-grew the economy quite impressively with no help from either house of Congress, achieved a first attempt at something resembling national health care insurance even though it’s woefully sloppy and over-detailed, accomplished a bushel of things few people either know about or remember (take a look at the White House website), appointed two progressive women to the Supreme Court, conducted himself with presidential dignity in the face of consistent disrespect, managed to get re-elected and be a two-term president, and to date has avoided assassination, even though, it would appear, the Secret Service doesn’t entirely have his back.

Now the media are asking what he’s going to do about racism in America – especially since he’s worked so hard to be The President, not The Black President, and hasn’t wanted to make White people feel…excluded? ignored? uncared for? The irony here (one of several) is that even though White people hold all the cards, a lot of them always feel short-changed because they think poor people and minorities get all the breaks and benefits. They really believe that! The same way rich people (who, except for a handful of entertainers and athletes, are pretty much exclusively White) think they’re taken advantage of because they’re rich. The mind reels.

I guess we’ll have to [hope and] wait for Hillary Clinton. Maybe she can do something about “race relations,” since paying any attention to women’s issues would clearly be favoritism. Shame and pride, pride and shame, and the increased loss of personal and national innocence as the eternal foibles of reality bubble up. And I don’t even have room left to talk about Bill Cosby.

Where Are the Moderate Muslims?

We are still just getting a clearer picture of yesterday’s attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three of his staff.  A similar angry, armed mob also attacked the US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, which resulted in more general destruction, injury, vandalism and demonstrations of Muslim extremist hatred for America.  What we have not seen, as usual, nor are we likely to see, is a swell of protest against these actions from moderate Muslims – not in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, or most important, Muslim-Americans.  Why not?  Where are the Moderate Muslims?

I do not condone the sentiments and often the behavior of those who are Muslim-phobic in this country, and I fully understand that most Muslims worldwide are not extremists engaging in or supporting of terrorism and political violence.  But it becomes increasingly irritating to not see this larger Muslim World stand up to the extremists – the violent, ignorant, bullies – in their ranks.  As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.  He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

These most recent incidents were apparently set off by an obscure, amateur video that is extremely anti-Islam and, of course, deeply insulting to the Prophet Mohammad.  And as stupid as it may seem to us, the extremists believed the video was a blockbuster Hollywood movie that was going to be released to coincide with the 11^th anniversary of the September 11^th attacks.

According to today’s New York Times:

“The trailer was uploaded to YouTube by Sam Bacile, whom The Wall Street Journal Web site identified as a 52-year old Israeli-American real estate developer in California.  He told the Web site he had raised $5 million from 100 Jewish donors to make the film.  ‘Islam is a cancer,’  Mr. Bacile was quoted as saying.

“The video gained international attention when a Florida pastor began promoting it along with his own proclamation of Sept. 11 as ‘International Judge Muhammad Day.’  In a statement on Tuesday, the pastor, Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., called the film ‘an American production, not designed to attack Muslims but to show the destructive ideology of Islam’ and said it ‘further reveals in a satirical fashion the life of Muhammad’.”

Lest you’ve forgotten, it was Mr. Jones who, a while back, thought threatening to burn a copy of the Koran would be helpful in fighting terrorism and strengthening positive relationships between the US and Muslim nations.

I don’t want to devote too much space to noting that in today’s impossible 24-hour news and politics pace of life and governing, it is regrettable that Gov. Mitt “Foreign Policy is a Distraction” Romney felt both obliged and entitled to immediately criticize the President’s initial response.  After all, in the middle of The Campaign, everything is fair political game for a kick in the balls.  “America First,” indeed.

For the record, Obama’s “objectionable” statement was as follows: “While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.”

No, I want to concentrate on the fact that contemporary, moderate, ordinary-folks-just-like-you-and-me-Muslims have never collectively done anything to disparage the brethren who are making them look bad and are doing nothing to make the world better – in general or for Muslims in particular – with their violence, hatred and, frankly, a complete lack of sense of humor about themselves and what they believe in.

If you really believe in what you say you believe in – whatever that may be – you don’t get crazy every time someone writes a book or draws a cartoon or makes a movie that offends you.  You let it roll off your back at the least, and peacefully protest about it at the most.  And it would also have been nice, in this instance, if the protesters had given the US some slack, given our support of the Arab Spring and our efforts to avert a Libyan genocide.

To his political detriment, President Obama has consistently tried to walk a fine line between improving relations and communication with the Muslim World and maintaining a consistently supportive policy with Israel.  For his efforts, he’s been accused by the radical American Right of being a Muslim; and rejected, even reviled, by American Jews for not doing enough for Israel.  Instead, Obama and the US have been attacked by Muslim extremists who have no understanding of a culture in which ideas are expressed that are not shared by government, religious leaders, or the populace at large.

If the vast majority of Muslims just want to live their lives and practice their religion in peace, they must show some collective gumption and stand up for sanity and order.  If they don’t, the extremists will make it even worse for them, as well as incur reprisals that would otherwise be unnecessary; it will be a self-fulfilled prophecy, realized in large part by those who stood by and did nothing.

The "Thelma and Louise" of 9/11

Every time I watch a movie that shows the New York skyline before the attacks of September 11, 2001, I gasp a little.  Sometimes I tear up, other times I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach – again.  I don’t often consciously think about that day and its awful myriad of consequences.  But when I see an image of the old skyline, with what now look like magnificent giant rectangles (buildings that prior to 9/11 I frankly thought were an ugly, charmless, over-the-top eyesore), all the shock and sadness come rushing back.  I’m an American and a New Yorker and far from immune to the feeling and memory of that horror.

Much has happened in the ten years since.  In part, I feel as Dick Cavett described in his New York Times column on 9/9/11: “Have you, perchance, decided — as I have — not to spend the weekend re-wallowing in 9/11 with the media?”  Yet I also believe that 9/11 should not be forgotten, and that we still have much to learn and understand about that event.

So the bells and bagpipes ring hollow when I consider that “ground zero” remained a gaping hole in the ground for nearly a decade before a fitting memorial was constructed/landscaped, and an inexplicably taller, larger, monstrosity was erected in place of the original monoliths.  (Think what might have been a better use of that land – a new Museum of American History, or a new SUNY or CUNY school.  But that wouldn’t have been “commercially viable.”  That downtown land is too valuable to squander on education, beauty and fresh air!)

What I think of most these days when I do ponder 9/11 is the unconscionable treatment of the First Responders and clean-up volunteers.  In many instances, their courage and generosity have been rewarded with serious illness, but their right to financial compensation and the very best health care that they shouldn’t have to pay a nickel for is consistently questioned and frequently denied.

It’s the same mistreatment of those we also hail as heroes with the “We Support the Troops” crap: flags and parades and medals, but young men and women being routinely sent into harm’s way without proper/necessary equipment of many kinds; being subjected to numerous tours (three, four and more) instead of the traditional one or two; being paid so little that thousands of military families live in sub-standard housing and require Welfare and food stamps; and when they return, being subjected to poor or no health care and unwarranted scrutiny of the “cause” of their injuries!

Very few 9/11 First Responders and volunteers will be part of official tenth anniversary ceremonies today, an insult that speaks (screams) for itself.

I also think of that famous quote: “Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor security” (variously attributed to Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine).  So when I think of 9/11 now, ten years later, I think of the Patriot Act, a brutal attack on civil rights and legal procedure that citizens have accepted without question in the name of security, just as we accept the imposition of airport and other security measures that appear to do little more than continually close the proverbial barn door.  Perhaps our two most traumatic responses have been our loss of innocence and sense of safety, and, the terror of being violated in a way that the mainland of America has never been violated before.

The 1991 film Thelma and Louise came to mind within the last couple of weeks in regard to another matter.  Then the film “just happened” to be on TV last night and I began thinking about it in relation to 9/11.  Since the movie is 20 years old, I won’t consider myself a “spoiler” if I recap the essence of the story.

Thelma, an obedient, ditzy little housewife and Louise, a capable and emotionally scarred waitress, set off for a weekend vacation in the mountains.  For Thelma, their stop at a honky-tonk bar leads to too much drinking, a little suggestive dancing, and an attempted rape by a nasty good-ole-boy in the parking lot.  For Louise, armed with her friend’s gun, it leads to a flashback of being raped herself, a verbal altercation with the attempted rapist, and her shooting him dead.

From that moment on, these two ordinary little gals from Arkansas zoom through a series of new incarnations – from frightened victims to brazen criminals to avenging Amazon warriors.  They shed their feminine propriety for a “macha” kind of chutzpa and discover a comfortable new wildness in themselves.

Even before they’re surrounded by an army of police, they acknowledge their transformation to each other.  “I can’t go back,” says Thelma, “something’s crossed over in me.  I just couldn’t live.”  “I know what you mean,” answers Louise.  So by the time they’re cornered fugitives, they would sooner die than be defiled by a system that would never have believed or helped them.  They don’t go back.  They clasp hands and drive their car over the edge of the Grand Canyon.

I think something like that happened to America and Americans after 9/11.  We lost our innocence along with the sense of safety that comes with being powerful.  First we got scared and allowed an opportunistic government to curtail our freedoms.  Then we got mad and consented by general silence to two ill-advised wars that are still raging. Then finally, we had enough.

Some of us expressed our rage and need for positive change by electing Barack Obama.  Others created the Tea Party.  We all “want our country back,” by which we mean many different things.  Hardcore conservatives want to get the black president out of the White House, not pay taxes and move back to Mayberry.  Hardcore liberals want a sane, engaged government that’s got our backs; we want justice for all and to give peace a chance.  We all want to go back to what we personally recall as the best part of the 20^th century, the American century.

But we can’t go back.  Something’s crossed over in us all.