April 4, 2009
Posted by David Rothenberg on Tuesday, April 28, 2009
March came in like a lion and went out like a lion. April hasn’t proved to be much better. The weather seems determined to reflect the news. A little sunshine might alleviate the gloom that permeates the nation…in fact the world. Unemployment, reports of tent cities, Hoovervilles, if you will, and a determination of right wing ideologues to undermine every effort to pull us out of this morass.
I grew up in an aura of American invincibility. We fought and won WWII because God was on our side. We were the virtuous, the triumphant, the protectors of all that what was right and moral and just. That’s what we were taught and what we believed. The partnership of God and government was not challenged.
Those who lived through the 60’s had more than a glimpse of something else. Government was lying to us. Middle class kids were determined not to be sent to Vietnam and sacrifice their lives. Suddenly the vigor of the civil rights movement crossed over and all of the past lies, swept under the rug, became a focus for thinking, caring Americans. White America, shielded from the duplicity and disgrace of apartheid, suddenly, when their lives were threatened, began to challenge omnipotence of government. Vietnam ended and the student protests faded into Reaganism and me-too-ism. Some call it Greed. It became about getting all you can with no concern for anyone else, least of all the generations to follow. Reaganism evolved into the Bush years, twelve altogether, counting Daddy Bush. Deregulation and another war based on lies brought us into our current state where our invincibility seems compromised…almost a mirage.
Then America made a dramatic about face…electing a bright and hopeful young man, whose ethnic background defied everything in American history. Barack Obama, at once, became the coming of age for America and an obstacle for those clinging to the ugliness and deceits of the past.
Barely two months into his Presidency, the hysterical right has an underground barrage of hate and denial that rocks your sensibility. They seem impervious to the great damage imposed on our nation by the last thirty years of Reagan and two Bushes – particularly the last one…the incompetent one.
There is paradox in all of this. Those who questioned the Bush-Cheney leadership were accused of being un-American, traitors, giving support to the enemy. Some faced anonymous chants of “Go to Cuba, you Communist!” God was their co-pilot. In fact, Bush himself was rarely the issue, though his inarticulate mumblings about policy became subject for ridicule. We loyal Americans opposed his war, the use of torture, the abandonment of the constitution and the Geneva Convention, the neglect of New Orleans, the deregulations and inefficient government agencies that resulted in a downward economic spiral. It was the policies of the last administration that we opposed …. because we love this country.
Now comes Obama, inheritor of the Bush calamity. The right is apoplectic. Several ads have come to my attention, scurrilous personal attacks on the new President, one headlined “THE MAN WHO CAN DO NOTHING RIGHT”, another suggested he resign. Fox TV has stepped up the rhetoric and theatrics. There’s a new one at Fox who cries on camera because of “them” and what “them” is doing to America.
The irony is that the right wingers, the Foxitas, are the anti-Americans opposing our government before it gets off the ground. They are unpatriotic giving support to those who want to destroy our way of life. They keep trying to bring DOD into the picture but it doesn’t seem to be working this time around. Not to the unemployed, the people losing their life savings.
I am deeply saddened by the state of our nation…encouraged only by the intelligence and determination of our young President, who is more optimistic than circumstances allow. Amidst the gloom of April rains and right wing proclamations, Obama stands taller than all the prophets of doom.
I am reminded of the Hollywood gossip columnist, Louella Parsons, who in 1939 announced on her weekly radio program…amidst the gloom of unemployment and the threat of war…she told her national audience that the clouds had parted with the hopeful news that Shirley Temple has agreed to appear in a filming of Matterlink’s Bluebird.
I think we all need a little of Shirley Temple in our lives right now…and if she looks like a tall Black woman digging a garden in the White House lawn, that will satisfy me. We’ll have to make our own sunshine even if the dissenters start looking like the little man in Lil Abner who walks around with a perennial cloud over his head.
I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!
I grew up in an aura of American invincibility. We fought and won WWII because God was on our side. We were the virtuous, the triumphant, the protectors of all that what was right and moral and just. That’s what we were taught and what we believed. The partnership of God and government was not challenged.
Those who lived through the 60’s had more than a glimpse of something else. Government was lying to us. Middle class kids were determined not to be sent to Vietnam and sacrifice their lives. Suddenly the vigor of the civil rights movement crossed over and all of the past lies, swept under the rug, became a focus for thinking, caring Americans. White America, shielded from the duplicity and disgrace of apartheid, suddenly, when their lives were threatened, began to challenge omnipotence of government. Vietnam ended and the student protests faded into Reaganism and me-too-ism. Some call it Greed. It became about getting all you can with no concern for anyone else, least of all the generations to follow. Reaganism evolved into the Bush years, twelve altogether, counting Daddy Bush. Deregulation and another war based on lies brought us into our current state where our invincibility seems compromised…almost a mirage.
Then America made a dramatic about face…electing a bright and hopeful young man, whose ethnic background defied everything in American history. Barack Obama, at once, became the coming of age for America and an obstacle for those clinging to the ugliness and deceits of the past.
Barely two months into his Presidency, the hysterical right has an underground barrage of hate and denial that rocks your sensibility. They seem impervious to the great damage imposed on our nation by the last thirty years of Reagan and two Bushes – particularly the last one…the incompetent one.
There is paradox in all of this. Those who questioned the Bush-Cheney leadership were accused of being un-American, traitors, giving support to the enemy. Some faced anonymous chants of “Go to Cuba, you Communist!” God was their co-pilot. In fact, Bush himself was rarely the issue, though his inarticulate mumblings about policy became subject for ridicule. We loyal Americans opposed his war, the use of torture, the abandonment of the constitution and the Geneva Convention, the neglect of New Orleans, the deregulations and inefficient government agencies that resulted in a downward economic spiral. It was the policies of the last administration that we opposed …. because we love this country.
Now comes Obama, inheritor of the Bush calamity. The right is apoplectic. Several ads have come to my attention, scurrilous personal attacks on the new President, one headlined “THE MAN WHO CAN DO NOTHING RIGHT”, another suggested he resign. Fox TV has stepped up the rhetoric and theatrics. There’s a new one at Fox who cries on camera because of “them” and what “them” is doing to America.
The irony is that the right wingers, the Foxitas, are the anti-Americans opposing our government before it gets off the ground. They are unpatriotic giving support to those who want to destroy our way of life. They keep trying to bring DOD into the picture but it doesn’t seem to be working this time around. Not to the unemployed, the people losing their life savings.
I am deeply saddened by the state of our nation…encouraged only by the intelligence and determination of our young President, who is more optimistic than circumstances allow. Amidst the gloom of April rains and right wing proclamations, Obama stands taller than all the prophets of doom.
I am reminded of the Hollywood gossip columnist, Louella Parsons, who in 1939 announced on her weekly radio program…amidst the gloom of unemployment and the threat of war…she told her national audience that the clouds had parted with the hopeful news that Shirley Temple has agreed to appear in a filming of Matterlink’s Bluebird.
I think we all need a little of Shirley Temple in our lives right now…and if she looks like a tall Black woman digging a garden in the White House lawn, that will satisfy me. We’ll have to make our own sunshine even if the dissenters start looking like the little man in Lil Abner who walks around with a perennial cloud over his head.
I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb!
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