Now and again I reach out for some inspiration. Not far from my desk is a stack of football cards. I rarely touch them. On my music collection shelf is the CD “The Concert for New York”. That was the show we watched after September 11th as we wiped away tears and were reminded why we love our country. The football cards I picked to feature are Roger Staubach from 1978 and Walter Payton from 1977. In 1978 Roger Staubach, Captain America, led the Cowboys to Super Bowl XIII where they played and were defeated by the Pittsburg Steelers. Walter Payton led the Bears to playoffs for the first time in my young life. I was nine. Walter, from my parents’ native Mississippi, was tearing the league up. I would say he is the player I miss watching more than anyone, with the exception of Ken Anderson….my quarterback. Around the corner is Walter Cronkite. He too is not far away on the bookshelf. We need you now, Walter.
I suppose I enjoy getting some of my old relics out, like ball cards, music, and the countenance of a news man we could trust. If for nothing else, just to remind myself of a better place in time. I remember watching Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley and John Chancellor deliver news and show us sights and sounds around the world that made me think “man, I sure am glad that ain’t going on here”. Look…I am no puritan. I know this country has had its share of growing pains. Most of them were needed, as many growing pains are.
I love this country. I don’t like what I see from her right now. The Russians must be laughing at the Cold War we are playing on ourselves. US vs THEM I can relate to. US vs. US looks scary and sad and, well, pathetic. Right now our country is pretty pathetic.
The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.
The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.
President Jimmy Carter July 15, 1979
Tonight I exposed myself, on purpose, to the US vs. US mentality that is ripping this country apart. The news media is the chief culprit. Walter Cronkite is gone as if he never existed. While I was exercising (3 miles on the elliptical and some weightlifting) this evening I tuned into CNN around 6:50 PM. Wolf Blitzer is not easy for me to look at or listen to. What he was talking about was the Federal Judge in Hawaii overturning the President Trump-laden “Travel Ban”. That was the lead story at the top of the hour on the show hosted by Erin Burnett. She is even more difficult to listen to than Wolf. Where have you gone Campbell Brown? You were better for news than you are for education. Anyway, Erin Burnett started in on the travel ban too. I then turned it over to Fox News and watched as their host, a lady-person, and Brit Hume and another guy started in on Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and how she produced two pages of Donald Trump’s 2005 tax return and gave details of it just last night. The Fox News bunch grilled and made issue of Rachel Maddow doing this for a long time. And really, who cares? How is this helping anyone? At 7:12 Fox News got around to making mention of the travel ban overturn ruling handed down by the Federal Judge in Hawaii. The news of this…which could affect, uh, many, was mentioned by Foxs News and swept away before the before the clock hit 7:13. Not even a minute was given to a ruling affecting many Americans and their families and their loved ones trying to find their way.
That is where we are. US vs. US. United we do not stand. The Russians must be loving it.
You have no idea how much difficulty I have writing this. Somewhere in a creaky drawer in the Harrison County Courthouse in Corydon, Indiana there is a piece of paper with my name on it that has a capital “R” next to it. R as in Republican. That is more difficult to admit by the hour.
Tonight after Fox News went on and on about the “tax rates” that were assessed to Donald Trump 25ish% and Barack Obama 18ish% and Bernie Sanders 13ish%, their pictures were above their numbers, one politician, a Senator from Kentucky, he’s a doctor so you’d think he might have some sense, made a comment that Sanders needed to get his check book out and make a check out to the government in lieu of his low tax rate. HELLO? How stupid can one guy be? Trump reportedly made over 150 million dollars. I doubt Bernie Sanders will see that in a lifetime. Economics and tax rates and paying any attention to how the real world works will tell you that folks making more pay more. What lump of coal has this guy been hiding under? No offense to my friends in West Virginia…Friends of Coal.
And Donald Trump? It is difficult to call him President Trump. But…President Trump? Commander and Tweet. He is a walking talking smokescreen. How long can he keep lawmakers from getting down to the business of helping the country? Helping people? He just leads the media and his lackeys down one rabbit hole to the next. It is great entertainment. But isn’t that why we have Hollywood? It is on the other coast. Washington is suppose to be the antithesis of that place, isn’t it? Well, it’s not working out that way.
Jeb Bush had it right. He claimed that a Trump presidency would be a “chaotic” presidency. Have you seen the looks on some of the Republican faces in Washington lately? I give them an “A” for effort in trying to keep the party together. It won’t last. Trump will eventually wear everyone out. He is not a leader. He is an actor. America elected an actor. It worked out once before. But that guy had some political experience.
The Trump phenomena puzzles me. Did that many people not want a woman president? Did that many people think a black president for 8 years was enough and they needed a white guy in there? Was it Clinton fatigue? It could not have been about an email server. Maybe everyone already knew Trump Tower was wiretapped! They just didn’t tell. Yeah, right.
I am dumbfounded when I see and hear of the support Trump gets from the South. I am child of the South. My parents were born in Mississippi. I almost was. For many decades I did not hear many complimentary things about folks from the North. Yankees were some sort of odd appendages to many folks in the South. And now they want to support this guy? The garbage mouth from New York City? Was there a power outage in the bible belt when word got out about how Trump spoke of women in such a vulgar way?
What I would give to get the days back when Southern folks made issue among themselves when a Northerner said “you guys” instead of the prevailing “y’all”. Ah, the good old days. They days when Walter Cronkite was telling us “That’s the way it is…” When my grandfather in Louisiana was yelling “Throw it , Roger!” when the Cowboys came to line of scrimmage. When my grandfather in Mississippi was sitting on a front porch spitting his snuff in a Hills Brothers coffee can as he watched the wind blow and listened to the weather report on a transistor radio plastered to his ear that could barely hear. When Walter Payton was making an entire defense lose its collective breath trying to chase him down. When we still had World Trade Centers. When we enjoyed the political process. We did, you know. That was when we got along and the Russians were not laughing at us. They were concerned. Not any more.
I think about John Kaisch and I want to cry. He could have beaten Hilary Clinton. I think I could of beaten her. But the voice of reason doesn’t win over in the age of Tweets and Fox News junkies.
While I am sad for the kids exposed to this today, I am glad I still know the difference. Even if some trying to lead have no clue. Like every other sad time in our history, the ones screwing things up will be gone one day. Learning from these current tragedies means it won’t take much time to correct. Common sense will once again be ready to fill the void. The rest can be worked out by folks wanting to do what is best for each other….not US vs. US. There may be hell to pay to get there. It usually works out that way. In the meantime I will get wistful now and again and miss the days of “film at eleven”. We were confident in those words.
Speaking a sad rights…
Danny Johnson