Bad, Sad, Mad

I imagine President Obama isn’t feeling too well tonight.  Since I don’t think he’s delusional, he must know that the insane and protracted debacle that just accompanied the raising of the debt ceiling has ended with a really bad deal.  It pleases no one and may very well kick-start an economic decline that won’t stop until we hit bottom.  This man whom, I believe, genuinely wanted to help make America better – for everyone and everything – must know that he’s made a piss poor job of it, but I don’t think he fully understands how and why he and we got here.  But I’ve got the audacity to think I do understand, so here goes.

Things as they are now really started with the rise of Ronald Reagan and, simultaneously, the rise of Christian fundamentalism and the assassination of John Lennon, all of which occurred in 1980.  What was then called The Silent Majority was very displeased with the events of the 60s and 70s that ushered in a new era of social permissiveness.  They didn’t like what they saw as the success of the civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights movements.  They didn’t like uppity blacks and hippies and The Pill and the wholesale questioning of the existence of God.  They didn’t like the tough economic times of the 70s, or Jimmy Carter trying to rein them in, he with his sweater in a cold White House and the 55 mph speed limit and the energy crisis and his complete inability to get a whole bunch of American hostages out of Iran.

So, in the leadership of Ronald Reagan they saw a man who had seen the error of his own youthful Democrat, union-supporting, Hollywood-decadent ways and had been born again (as it were) in the sobering waters of Republican conservatism, traditional social and religious values, and unbridled free-market capitalism.  He made them feel comfortable and hopeful and much less afraid.

For their part, the Boomers – most in our 30s, a few in our 40s – were so demoralized by Lennon’s death and the end of his love-and-peace message that many of us allowed ourselves to be seduced by cocaine and unprecedented opportunities to make a lot of money, which seemed like a good idea, because it had turned out that love was not all we needed, and an ambitious younger generation (the Yuppies) were snapping at our heels like Pac Man.

Bill Clinton notwithstanding, things went on in this vein for a couple of decades, including an increasing lack of compassion for the poor, the under-employed, and the in any way vulnerable and needy on virtually everybody’s part.  The Silent Majority and Boomers may have been different in many ways, but they had come to share a love of money and success and feelings of safety.  They had kids and careers and comfort and they wanted to stay that way.  It was during these years that glamour was prized, and people shopped ‘til they dropped for things that were to die for.

Then 9/11 happened and America suddenly realized it was vulnerable in an unsafe world that was changing once again, filled with new kinds of revolutionaries, new kinds of heathens, more people who wanted a slice of the good times pie and we didn’t feel like sharing.  So we kept Bush-43 around for eight years, because he was butch and patriotic and God-fearing, and didn’t back away from a good fight or reckon with no new-fangled ideas.

Then along came Barack Hussein Obama, a clearly dangerous (liberal) black man (!) with a frightening foreign name who was young and handsome and talked real pretty about change and hope.  So the Reagan Democrats and Traditional Republicans and Super-Good Christians organically joined forces and morphed into a revitalized population of über-conservatives (soon to be known as the Tea Party) and radical Christians who eschewed science, common decency and common sense, along with the poetry and parables of the Bible, and chose instead to take everything literally, from the ancient Bible to the 200-year-old Constitution, to the obvious liberal dangers of the new millennium.  They did not see, and still do not see, any reason for rethinking or updating or changing anything, because if they concede to change, the terrible “other” wins.

And when Barack Obama won in 2008 – thanks largely to a whole new generation of uppity blacks and deviant young people – the now not-so-silent majority/minority made it their mission to bring him down even before he could get on his feet.

For his part, President Obama gravely underestimated the toxic level of racism that would be added to an already-vile witch’s brew of philosophical and political opposition.  His chief goal – the one upon which hope and change were firmly tethered – was to make everyone in the Washington power structure play nicely together, understand and respect each other’s differing views, and from the epiphany that would result from this new rapprochement, they would work together to change America for the better.

Maybe it would have worked if Bush-43 hadn’t ratcheted up the debt and deficit, decimated government regulation and oversight of nearly everything, and put two wars on America’s American Express card.  But he did.  And Barack Obama inherited an indescribable mess.  He kept the American (and world) economy from falling over the proverbial edge of the proverbial cliff, but he didn’t get a lot of credit for that, because to most people (like me), economics is math and math is something we don’t understand.

Then the President took the initiative in changing some things he could change on his own, but he hasn’t gotten a lot of credit for that, because modest but meaningful changes are small news and the media didn’t cover it.  Lastly, the President simply would not abandon his “let’s all get along” prime directive, nor did he play hardball with the disparate members of his own party.  It may also be that negotiation just isn’t his strong suit.  In any case, he ended up presenting the country with really crappy versions of change initiatives we wanted, like universal health care and strong financial reform and making the rich & corporations pay up and, now, even raising the debt ceiling came with poorly thought out, never discussed, and damaging laws and protocols that may very well push us over that cliff after all.

The President turns 50 this week and I imagine that even for a president, that’s a rough milestone to reach.  It was a bitch for me.  But it was also the point at which I decided to stop caring about what other people thought of me and just be and accept myself as I am – and let the chips fall where they may.  With any luck, Mr. Obama will have the same impulse and let us know that if we re-elect him in 2012, he’ll be the Obama we voted for last time, rather than the largely ineffectual compromiser he’s been during his first term.  He’s only got one term left and he’s got nothing to lose.  I hope he’ll see it that way – before the rest of us lose everything.

That Was the Week That Was

Well, nobody can say this was a slow-news week!

Last Sunday the revered Indian spiritual leader, Sathya Sai Baba, died at the age of 84, to the great consternation of his millions of devotees worldwide.

Wednesday Barack Obama released his “long form” birth certificate and told the birthers to get a grip.

Thursday a cluster of tornadoes decimated a chunk of Alabama and took pieces out of four other states.

Friday Prince William married his fair Kate Middleton while 23 million people worldwide watched.

Saturday morning the Catholic Church also drew the eyes of millions as it beatified Pope John Paul II. Saturday night Obama and Seth Meyers killed (in the comedy sense) at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Sunday was Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, which didn’t get a lot of mainstream news attention. Sunday night President Obama announced that an elite Navy SEAL force killed (in the dead sense) Osama bin Laden, who, it turns out, had not been hiding in an Afghanistan cave, but had been living in a luxurious walled compound in Pakistan, 50 miles from the Pakistani capitol, since 2005.

Whew!

Ever since the infamous Maharishi Mahesh Yogi tried to fondle Mia Farrow and disillusioned the Beatles, much of America has had no interest in Indian gurus. But Sathya Sai Baba was a very different character. Yes, he was a wealthy man, in large part because of gifts from devotees, but he never solicited funds and neither did anyone else on his behalf. He was a man of love and faith, and though he himself was a Hindu, he encouraged his followers to stick with their own religions – just be better at the practice (right action) of them. I am not a devotee but a dear friend of mine is, and because I know her sincere intelligence, faith and behavior, and know how her belief in Sai Baba has improved her life, I’m moved to give Swami his due.

I think Obama was right to release the fucking long-form birth certificate, even though the birthers are a delusional wedge issue, and, this kind of attack would never have been levied against a white president. John McCain was born in Panama, but Conservatives never said a word about that, because he was born to an American mother, which automatically made her son an American. The same would be true of Obama even if he had been born in Kenya, but that doesn’t matter, the whole birther issue didn’t matter, because it was just code for “We don’t accept a Black president.” Now they want his college grades. As we used to say in the never-actually-happened revolution of the `70s, “Give me a break, give me a gun.”

The vicious storms that ravaged the south should give all of us pause about the power of nature, how much we’ve harmed the planet, and how furiously Mother Nature can fight back. Is this part of global climate change, the wrath of God, the disasters foretold for the 2012 phenomenon (which is an era, not a specific date)? Or is it something else? Whatever it is, it’s a reminder that so much of our country needs to be rebuilt, and so much of the world needs to be healed. Personally, I don’t know if it can be done.

I admit, I watched the wedding live, and was surprised by how comforting the pomp and circumstance was. I didn’t forget that this was a celebration for the most-current-star of an undeniably checkered 1,000-year-old Imperial dynasty, but it was classy – and after a trailer-trash week of Donald Trump, along with his yucky hair and the full contingent of Birthers – I appreciated seeing a little class. And I enjoyed the hats. I hadn’t realized that the WASP aristocracy of the Church of England dressed like African-American church-ladies. Live and learn.

I suppose I should have watched more of the beatification ceremony, if only to give the Catholics equal time, but I couldn’t stand the look on Pope Benedict XVI’s face. I also didn’t quite understand what beatification meant if it didn’t make JP2 a saint, but it was explained to me by a long-lapsed Catholic that it’s the first real step to sainthood and now Pope John Paul II can be called Blessed. He needs two miracles to his credit before sainthood can be conferred, but to the distress of many, his possible miracles will not include his having confronted the offending pedophiles that have been discrediting the Church for decades. I know Blessed was beloved, and he was good for the Jews, but not dealing with the pedophilia in his ranks should, one would think, preclude him from sainthood. But I’m not Catholic, so it’s not my call.

Both the President and the evening’s host, SNL’s Seth Meyers, were a scream at the Correspondents’ Dinner, and if you haven’t seen their respective stand-up routines, you really gotta check `em out (see links near top of page). And we now know that by the time of the dinner, Mr. Obama had already given the Go signal for the bin Laden attack – which makes his poker-face smile during Meyers’ bin Laden joke all the more impressive.

For those who may not understand that for many Jews, in Israel and elsewhere, the existence and security of Israel is non-negotiable because of the post-Holocaust pledge of Never Again!, some excellent Yom Hashoah programming was offered by PBS and it’s worth seeing; some of it is streaming online at PBS and Thirteen/WNET New York.

As for the death of Osama bin Laden, I’m not shedding a single tear, but I was rather turned off by the spontaneous, joyous street celebrations in front of the White House and at Ground Zero in New York. Does that make us any better than our adversaries who dance in the street and scream “Death to America!”? We know his death won’t end terrorism, that it may even spark new, imminent attacks. But I don’t blame anyone for being glad he’s dead; I’m glad myself (ding, dong, the witch…etc.). But we might do well to be more circumspect about our pleasure, and since it took us ten years to find him, I think “Finally!” is a more appropriate response than “We’re Number One!”

I don’t know what, if anything, it means that all these events occurred virtually simultaneously. But if we take away nothing else from this past week it should be that life is fragile, joy is fleeting, justice is relentless, romance is infectious, and everything is moving very, very fast. Hold on tight.

Corrections: The beatification ceremony was on Sunday; 23 million watched the wedding in the USA alone, the worldwide number was in the billions.