Open Carry Must Go

It was only a matter of time before some AR-15-carrying right-wing nutcase got so worked up that he shot a protester.  It happened last night in Albuquerque as protesters were attempting to remove a statue of a conquistador.

Do we want to make America the wild west again?  There is absolutely no reason for people to be allowed to carry firearms openly.  And for that matter, concealed carry licenses should only be granted to very few people who have a legitimate need.

There is a pathological romance with firearms in our society.  Small-minded men apparently need large guns to feel secure and significant.  This sickness infects all demographics, all ethnic groups and all neighborhoods.  The guy in the 'hood who doesn't feel like a man without his piece is no better or worse than the right-wing agitator who carries his AR-15 to a protest against COD-19 restrictions.  And the pathetic idiots who wander the country selling death in large numbers at gun shows would be worth pitying, if they weren't also a menace to public health.

The idea that society is somehow safer if large numbers of people are packing heat or toting automatic weapons is simply absurd.  The potential for violent conflict, road rage or accidental shootings is increased exponentially by having powerful weapons in the hands of the general public.  It just doesn’t make any sense at all. 

Proponents of open carry laws will trot out the old canard that if ‘guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns’, or the trope of the ‘good guy with a gun’.  Any serious research into the subject (if the NRA and its congressional lackies would allow serious research) would reveal that these are weak arguments.  

If we had strong gun laws with registration of all weapons, and a serious attempt to curtail gun sales and illegal ownership, along with a very strict criminal code for any crime using a weapon, eventually the veritable ocean of guns in this country would dry up.  

And it doesn’t take much analysis to recognize that ‘good guys with guns’ in a mass shooting or crime situation would simply add fuel to the chaos and confusion of the event and do more harm than good.

One of the major reasons that police are so highly adrenalized and prone to over-reaction is because of the massive number of guns in society that make each encounter a potentially lethal one.  Efforts need to be made to dramatically reduce this number.  How this can be done without the racial profiling and aggressive police tactics of 'stop and frisk' must be analyzed, but it is certainly possible with a concerted public effort.  Other countries have done it.

America is no longer a land of frontiers and rugged individualism.  Our freedom to hunt and target shoot should remain, but our freedom to carry weapons outside of our home must be curtailed dramatically if we are to make progress in policing reform and racial reconciliation.  These ideas may seem draconian, but they are long overdue and simply reflect the approach to weapons that Europe has benefitted from for many decades.

 

 

Police Reform is Just the First Step

The BLM and racial injustice outcry in recent weeks seems to have finally shocked most of America into believing that change is truly needed.  The most immediate need is for reform of policing.  But if we only address the police issue, then we miss the bigger problems of injustice and inequality in our society and will not make the kind of progress that is desperately needed.

The ever-increasing disparity in income and wealth across our nation is a key underlying factor in all of our social ills.  Attacking this problem directly is problematic because it impinges on sacred cow principles of capitalist and market doctrine.  Perhaps it would be more expedient and successful to tackle the consequences of wealth disparity as basic social problems and thus achieve some transfer of wealth by the back door.  By providing important basic necessities of life for all citizens, we would significantly reduce the negative effects of income disparity.

Besides police reform, there are six major areas in our society that need dramatic overhaul to reduce the impact of income disparities and the legacies of slavery and poverty:  Healthcare, Education, Childcare, Transportation, Housing, Addiction/Mental Health and Incarceration.  There are models for improvement in all of these areas in other developed nations.

Our police appear to have increasingly been trained to embrace a military style, us-versus-them approach to policing, rather than a collaborative, neighborhood-development form of policing.  A national effort to transform policing into a true ‘hearts and minds’ public service instead of an adversarial, authoritarian relationship would be a great first step.  Police budgets should increase police salaries and decrease the purchase of military-style weaponry and gadgets.  Police forces should not be utilized as a means to supplement city and county budgets, which has historically created a chasm between the police and the public.

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the ugly truth of our failed healthcare system, despite the heroic efforts of healthcare providers.  We need basic universal healthcare.  Private insurance systems can continue for more affluent citizens, but every citizen should be given basic medical help and preventive care.  In the long run, this may actually be less expensive than our current system, as we currently spend more per capita than other developed nations who are providing universal care.

Every American should be given an education sufficient to prepare them for a job, either through vocational or university training.  This is the case in most EU nations, where even medical school has only a nominal fee.  The current student debt problem in the U.S. is particularly pernicious in underserved and minority communities.  

Early education through secondary must be carefully analyzed and improved to allow marginalized populations the opportunity to break out of poverty.  Teachers should be paid more to ensure that a high quality of training is achieved.  

Free or subsidized childcare should be provided for low-income families.  The single income family is no longer feasible in a low-income household, and the cost of childcare for working parents is a huge chunk of their net pay.  Again, European nations provide free or heavily subsidized childcare for all citizens.  There is no excuse for the U.S. to be the outlier in this basic social service.

Car ownership is a very expensive luxury for low-income families.  Transportation systems providing economical means of moving around communities must be extended and improved so that automobiles are not necessary for most families.  Ride-sharing options may also be helpful.  This is also a quality of life issue, as low-income citizens often spend hours of their day traveling to and from work through inadequate public transportation systems.

Low-income housing is a complex topic and has proven to be a stubborn and challenging obstacle to improving low-income neighborhoods.  It also impacts education, as schools are tied to neighborhoods.  Ideally, neighborhoods should be built with a mix of housing levels, but this has not been achievable except in rare cases in the past.  The problem of decent housing will have to be studied and may only improve as other social programs take effect.

Addiction, mental health, homelessness and incarceration are inter-related issues that plague America much more than other developed nations.  Justice reform efforts are underway and should improve the incarceration rate in the near future.  Prisons need to begin to focus more on rehabilitation, which will require more reform and a more enlightened attitude about crime and punishment.  Addiction and drugs must be viewed primarily as social problems and not as a ‘war’ to avoid the long term negative consequences that we have experienced to date.  Social services and facilities for mental health must be expanded significantly to rescue many of our homeless from the streets and give them a chance to recover their lives.

If we dedicate ourselves to using some of our vast wealth to address the problems described above, then we will begin to move toward a healthy, more egalitarian society.  It won’t be cheap.  It will require a willingness for the more affluent to part with some of their accumulated treasure and a change in the way that we budget our nation’s expenses – less toward defense for example (we already spend more than the next 8 nations combined!!)

The alternative is a sad, steady unraveling of our social fabric, which is already showing clear signs of distress.  New space programs, tech start-ups and stock market run-ups are lovely, but for America to truly be exceptional we need to quickly turn our attention to creating a better America for all of its citizens.

 

 

 

Lessons for America in Babylon Berlin

It was a time of cultural experimentation, a time of great wealth disparity, of the ostentatious rich and the wretched poor, of the radical left, the radical right, organized crime, and the reactionary old guard and aristocracy.

The television series Babylon Berlin stunningly portrays late 1920’s Berlin in all of its contradictions.  It is fascinating to watch, and it has many parallels in today’s America.

In Berlin, the armed and violent margins of society have running gun battles while the police cynically play them off one another and apply their own aggressive brand of violence and corruption.  The poor and the workers attempt to march peacefully in the streets, demanding the change that is so desperately needed, but they are ruthlessly exploited by both left and right radicals for whom violence is the only solution to any problem.

And then the stock market crashes, and the world goes into a deep depression, with Berlin and Germany in total free fall.  All the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

The demonstrations and riots in our country are frightening, but also a very powerful wake-up call.  One can argue that looting and rioting do not further the causes that the demonstrations represent.  But if there had been only peaceful demonstrations across the land for a few days they would have gained only a small mindshare of a weary, social-media saturated public.

On the other hand, anytime there is large scale violence, there is the significant risk that more systemic violence will follow, that radical fringe groups will propagate and attract new members, that the police and the government will see more vigorous and violent response as their only recourse.  Then you have Babylon Berlin.

The majority of Americans must recognize that this is not a time for half measures and maintaining the status quo.  We must commit ourselves to addressing the manifold ills of our society and economy.  Both liberals and conservatives in the mainstream must be prepared to make sacrifices to create a better society.  The middle and upper classes all share the hypocrisy of wishing for a better world but not being willing to put into practice our convictions.  We must find new, conciliatory leadership and a new vision.

Yes, there are many lessons for 2020 America in Babylon Berlin’s portrait of late 1920’s Germany.  Let us learn from them.  The Berliners didn’t, and we all know the end of that story. 

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.