When Leadership Really Counts

If there were any doubt, the current pandemic and social unrest has confirmed that we are a broken country in many ways and we desperately need strong and compassionate leadership to guide us through this dark hour.  Donald Trump is the antithesis of good leadership and if his incoherent, malevolent ramblings are not countered by other strong voices in our democracy, then we will have hell to pay.

I have been a strong critic of Donald Trump from the moment he entered the political scene.  I was astonished that a man whose entry into politics had been the promotion of an absurd racist birther claim against Barack Obama could even be considered for political office. 

But both his message and his style resonated with a certain part of America, and others who felt that despite his personality failings he could be employed to further conservative causes – abortion law changes, gun rights protection, aggressive foreign and trade policy, anti-immigration policy, etc. – cynically embraced his candidacy and tenure as president.

Can we imagine a less admirable character?  The flaws that he exhibits defy enumeration, but here are just a few:  narcissism, paranoia, thin-skin, boastfulness to an extreme, sexual predation, vindictiveness, insecurity, unparalleled vanity, impatience, lack of intellectual curiosity or rigor, lack of empathy.  Even an ardent conservative would find it difficult to argue that their child should emulate Donald Trump as a human being.

The demonstrations and riots that have multiplied over the last several days were sparked by police brutality and racism, but these issues are just the tip of the iceberg.  There are so many social and economic problems that we have swept under the rug for years.  We are fast becoming a banana republic, a laughable land of extremes in poverty and wealth with prisons and drugs serving as pressure relief valves that no longer suffice to hide the truth of our rotten socioeconomic landscape.

There is no hope of Trump rising to the challenge of leadership for this land in our hour of need.  He is as far from a Lincoln or FDR as any human can possibly be.  The only hope is for responsible leaders from both the left and the right to speak out and sideline the increasingly disastrous antics of the president, and then elect a replacement as soon as possible.  Now is the time for men and women of honor to lead a renaissance of the American dream.   Who will step up to the challenge?

On This Memorial Day

The origins of Memorial Day are complex and somewhat disputed.  It appears that it was first prevalent in the South after the Civil War as a way for families to mourn their dead and revisit some of the themes of ‘lost cause’ and ‘states rights’.  As time went on northern cities and states picked up the practice and eventually the entire nation began embracing it.

It is a good practice to honor people who have sacrificed for a common cause, especially when they have made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives.  A proper Memorial Day would honor every public or private citizen who has sacrificed his or her life for the good of others – healthcare workers who have died in the current pandemic would be a great addition, as well as firefighters, EMTs, police and any other group that makes such sacrifices.

The world has a long history of glorifying war and the various famous persons who have participated.  Although Memorial Day is considered a day of remembrance and not specifically a day of celebrating our wars, there is always a bit of jingoism attached, as if we cannot honor our dead without justifying the conflicts they died in.

A persuasive argument can be made that most of our wars have been tragic mistakes on a massive scale.  The Spanish American War, World War I, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War were all totally unnecessary and accomplished absolutely nothing.  The waste of human life and precious resources in these wars is almost beyond comprehension.

One can theorize that the Civil War was necessary to ‘save the union’ and abolish slavery.  I can’t say that saving the union is a cause that anybody would want to die for, as two distinct countries can exist quite nicely if they separate amicably. 

But the abolishment of slavery was indeed a noble cause.  Did a million people have to die to accomplish it?  Were the long-term consequences for the south worth it?  Would slavery have been obsolete within twenty years anyway, as the industrialized world was already rapidly emancipating slaves?  Would a less violent end to slavery have ultimately served African Americans better?

The fact that our wars have been foolhardy and unnecessary does not change the need to honor the sacrifice of those who participated.  We would honor the firefighter who dies racing into a building to save a child, even if it is later discovered that the child had already escaped.  Similarly, we can honor our service people’s sacrifices without celebrating or even justifying the wars they fought in.

But to really honor their sacrifice, it would be appropriate on this day and many others to take a hard look at our tendency to rush into war and conflict without proper justification.  Our citizens deserve to only be required to make the ultimate sacrifice when the need is dire, and the cause is worthy.

So, let us remember all those who have sacrificed for the good of others on Memorial Day.  Let us not only honor them with patriotic songs and speeches, but also by dedicating ourselves to a world where war is increasingly rare and truly a last resort, rather than a cynical tool of political expediency.

Facing Our Failures

The U.S. is a wonderful place in many ways.  We have incredible natural resources, national parks, landscapes and cities.  We have many of the best research and technology institutions in the world.  Our medical care, in many cases, offers the best and most advanced care available in the world.  The energy and innovation of our economy is also remarkable.  Our cultural offerings – music, art, movies, theater, opera, comedy – are diverse and impressive.  And the American people, for the most part, both liberal and conservative, are hard-working, generous and good-natured.

But there is, and always has been, a dark side to our country.  The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on it.  The rest of the world, which has looked on for several years with a mixture of disdain and schadenfreude as Donald Trump’s incivility and reckless leadership tarnished our image, is now watching in undisguised contempt as we flounder through the pandemic in abject, leaderless chaos.  American exceptionalism indeed!

We are a land of contradictions.  We have more billionaires and multi-millionaires by far than any other nation.   But we also have far more of our citizens in poverty and more blighted urban or rural landscapes than any other developed nation.  We have highly advanced medical technology and physicians, but a third of our people cannot take advantage of it due to cost and availability.  We have many of the best higher educational institutions in the world, yet our lower income areas generally have horribly broken schools, and large numbers of students go into debt financing their education after high school.  We also have far more people in prison than any other developed nation, and we suffer more from gun violence and drug addiction.

Europe went through two catastrophic world wars in the twentieth century.  But it emerged from the devastation with a commitment to a more just and harmonious society.  It has achieved that goal to a much greater degree than we have.  The U.S. became the undisputed world leader in commerce, military and technology during that time, relatively untouched by the cataclysms around it.  We gained the whole world, but somehow lost our soul in the process.

One can argue that we continue to pay for the twin sins of our founding – the genocide/displacement of indigenous peoples and the exploitation of slaves.  But Europe has many original sins in its past and it has somehow managed to rise above them.  I would argue that it is our stubborn, fanatical embrace of pure capitalism and rugged individualism that hampers our efforts to make a better society. 

And now, the richest, most technologically advanced nation in the world is suffering horribly from a pandemic, sacrificing its most vulnerable citizens in a tardy, panicked attempt to minimize economic consequences.  Our workers and poor are more at risk than any other developed nation because of the lack of protections that exist in our otherwise rich society.

America in its better days would have leaped into action right away, rallying its people around a common, national effort to prevent deaths, protect health workers, and then begun helping the rest of the world in its great need.

Now is the time for America to take a hard look in the mirror.  The narrative of exceptionalism we have told ourselves for so long is only partly true and is becoming less true by the year.  Indeed, it is a kind of delusion that blinds us from our all-too-real challenges.

We can learn from the hard-won successes of other nations and societies.  Our problems of income inequality, poverty, healthcare, violence and broken educational systems must be confronted or they will build into a tsunami of unpleasant consequences.  They are difficult but not intractable.

The death and misery of this pandemic will not have been entirely in vain if America wakes up and begins to acknowledge its ills and search for answers.  The first step will be to replace the deeply damaged and divisive man who is our current president.

Billionaires and Their Bunkers

Apparently New Zealand is a favorite spot for Silicon Valley billionaires and other masters of the universe to buy estates and turn them into end-of-the-world bunkers.  What could be better?  There is nice weather, isolation from the multitudes of lesser beings, and a convivial fraternity of superstars who can have a continuous TED talk with one another as they revel in the sheer joy of their common genius.

For the lesser super-wealthy, there are opportunities to purchase bunkers stateside in various remote locations.  The COVID-19 pandemic has made them all the rage.  After all, when it gets really bad, why sweat it out with the rest of humanity?  It’s a dog eat dog world and the meritocracy demands that the more accomplished human beings preserve themselves for the creation of a new society after the dust settles, right?

It is a sad truth that many people who have benefitted enormously in this world, whether by good fortune, skill or a combination of the two, are so unwilling to embrace their obligation to the rest of humanity.  There is something about a long intoxication in privilege, success and wealth that creates a narcissistic stupor.  Now that they have ascended to the penthouse, the plutocrats want to pull up the ladder and enjoy the view by themselves.

This is not a universal affliction.  There are exceptions who use their wealth and influence to benefit society and recognize the ‘there by the grace of God go I’ random nature of good fortune. But even the best of those kind souls end up living in a bubble of like-endowed potentates and lose their understanding or empathy to some great degree.

Still, my deepest disgust is reserved for those who actively prepare a protected haven from a future dystopia and spend millions that could otherwise be employed in helping the world avoid such a destiny.  They are to be pitied for their dearth of humanity and despised for their selfish foolishness.