About that curriculum vitae . . .

Taking notes

tagged

speechifying

I actually agree with something Trump just said.

“The longer we ignore a threat, the worse that threat becomes,” he opined.

And that statement precisely lays out why he needs to be removed from office, the sooner the better. He is a growing threat to this nation and the world.



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Statesmanship

Nostalgia

Thoughts on pledges and anthems, etc.

The Pledge. It was first committed to memory at the age of six. Mrs. Hamilton, our first grade teacher, saw to it. Then somebody added two words to it, and she was patient for a few days as we giggled when stumbling over the additions. Had you asked us what it meant, we would have shrugged. Seriously, how many six-year-olds can define ‘allegiance’ or ‘indivisible’, or for that matter, ‘pledge’?

We didn’t do it on the weekends or during summer vacation, so it was a school thing. We were just beginning to develop the intellectual capacity to understand basic concepts about the groups we belonged to: family, neighborhood, school, church on Sunday. What’s a state? What’s a united one? Nation?

What’s liberty? And, for most of us, the closest we had come to any understanding of justice likely depended on how often we heard the phrase, “Just you wait until your father gets home!” But we dutifully recited, with the proper pose, and did so with the same emotional gravitas that invested our turn at the big pencil sharpener. It was, at most, simple repetition, a recitation of sounds.

That ritual repeated, Monday through Friday, in every subsequent classroom. Fourth grade happened smack in the middle of a thing called McCarthyism, and we were given a special book to help us learn about a very scary thing called Communism. The book was published by a magazine that was famous for its news photographs, and one of the first photos showed a group of children speaking as they posed with their flag, and I remember thinking, “Oh, they do that, too. Just like us.” My father was startled when I showed him that picture and asked why it was good for us but bad for them.

Fast forward many years, and there have been a few moments that evoked those childhood memories and questions. To be sure, I did eventually gain a functional understanding of those vaunted concepts, along with a real appreciation for the history that imbues the values expressed in those words. But I also developed a determination to treat those words as something other than a magical incantation with nationalistic overtones, due in no small part to another Book that cautions against the use of ‘vain repetitions’. Mostly, I tend not to treat worshipfully anything made by human hands; for me, a symbol simply does not have the same value as that which it represents.

Along the same lines, and because such things are much in the news these days, there’s nothing quite like forced compliance for taking the joy out of a moment. A favorite meal isn’t going to taste quite as good when it’s delivered with the admonition to eat it or else. We have customs and traditions that help us navigate our interactions, but they cannot be compelled, otherwise they’d be laws. And, being human, we sometimes take things to ridiculous extremes. Not every public gathering demands a recitation of The Pledge, there is no law requiring the playing of a national anthem; we really are running the very real risk of cheapening them into meaninglessness.

Case in point: A number of years ago we drove to Cheyenne to play bingo. Before the game started we were asked to face the flag, recite the pledge, and then sing the national anthem. At a bingo game. Then, a few months later, a British military band marching at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, played the Star Spangled Banner to honor the United States following the attacks of 9-11. Of the two events, only the second still resonates with profound meaning.

There was a time when I gathered with friends to watch baseball or football games on television; and to be sure, some of those were parties for the ages. But for all those parties, all those games, there was never once when any of us stood for the national anthem. We sat and talked right through it. Were we horrible people? Are we unpatriotic? In truth, no. We’re average run-of-the-mill citizens who work, vote, pay taxes, and try to treat each other and our neighbors decently — and THAT, not what position we assume when the anthem plays, is what makes us good Americans. Who am I to condemn anyone for not being more than I am?


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But this guy...

This is . . .