Amazing Disgrace

 

How bittersweet the sound. Gather around, children, come and listen to things I have heard, but there are some discouraging words. 

I was taught when I was younger that the Confederacy lost the Civil War and that slavery had eventually been abolished in this land of the free to be as greedy as you please. But apparently the defeated are rising again … and of course it helps to keep many from voting. 

Meanwhile, they send the least advantaged to war only to withhold support for their wounds when they return. It does not help to befriend dictators who invade other countries with the hopes of building a hotel or casino in the dictator's land. I used to think this was the land of innovation and invention and opportunity and optimism. But division and dissimulation have become the norm and form of discourse and decision-making. The tired, the poor, the huddled masses would love to breathe free … or just breathe … but the air is not clean and the water not safe in areas where those tired and poor and huddled masses happen to live. 

This nation of immigrants is saying no to more immigrants and punishing many of those already here, except for models and wives of the wealthy. The media used to be trustworthy in reporting facts and analyzing complex situations but so many media people are now playing the gotcha game favored by politicians. 

Why do some people expect bumper sticker simple solutions to complex and challenging problems? Why do some people expect something simple to resolve something complex? Why do some people prefer slogans to solutions? A slogan will not solve the climate crisis or the gun violence crisis or the racial prejudice crisis or the health crisis or any other crisis condemning our children to a dark and dismal future. What is amazing are not the rare and few acts of kindness one might cite in response. What is amazing is how low we have fallen and how far our species is from the grace many used to praise and seek. 

The desert is not in some remote location. It is in the heart of your neighbor and even in yourself. Myself.

Short vs. Long

 

No, I am not thinking about Marc Short or Shelley Long. I am thinking about what a person values and what interests a person pursues. Of course, I first experimented on myself, which is not always a good or representative point of departure … but it is hard to avoid. In general, I found huge gaps between the two and noticed that when I was younger I tended to focus and act primarily on short term interests and values. I wanted to be a pilot, so I managed to get admitted to the Air Force Academy where my eyes started to deteriorate and I was not able to go to flight school and developed a strong interest in philosophy and was named the outstanding cadet in philosophy at ISAFA1967... yes, I am older than dirt. I opted for becoming an intelligence officer after graduation as I thought I would get to remain in the USA … this was during the Vietnam conflict in which about half of my Academy classmates died … and work on building an intelligence database … but then I was given a choice of learning Vietnamese or going to the Philippines as an intelligence officer. 

As I valued my life, I chose Clark Air Base in the Philippines. I think it was there that I began to shift from short term pursuits to a focus on long terms values and interests, such as acting in accord with that honor code we followed at USAFA. Truth … the truth began to be more important than being promoted or finding a better position in the Air Force. And, speaking truthfully in intelligence briefings and debriefings got me sent to Thailand and put in charge of airmen who were convicted of various offences and sent there to build a fence around the base along with machine gun bunkers … and I was put in charge of those people??? Surprisingly, I found many of them interesting and serious and managed to develop a working relationship in which I became Sergeant Mike to them in spite of my officer status. That might have been the result of my trading many roles of concertina wire for a box of steaks which we cook on the perimeter fence we had built. The person I replaced had built a machine gun bunker facing inside the base rather that outside the base. We had to rebuild it although we all thought it was an interesting way of protesting that officer’s mistreatment.

Anyway, I was saved from my own mistreatment by Senator Al Gore senior who managed to get me out with an honorable discharge as I was being treated as if I had committed an offence without a hearing or evidence and offered an honorable discharge or reassignment elsewhere. My choice of the discharge marks my shift from short term pursuits to a stronger focus on long term values. 

Of course things got worse after my discharge with unemployment and a divorce. I wandered about and managed to find a position with an IBM research and development lab outside Boulder, Colorado. I learned a lot at IBM, including being first in my programming class, but I found the work boring and wanted to do something that might have a more directly positive impact. So I got a leave of absence and went to Israel as a volunteer teacher for a year, where I reverted to short term interests and pursuits … i.e., girls. When I returned to IBM I really felt lost. 

My older and wiser brother was completing his PhD in history at the University of Texas and said I should apply to study there, which I did. I was admitted with a year delay due to a cap on admissions and lack of funding. At UT, I was initially a teaching assistant for an ethics course. I found the students uninterested although the professor was very supportive of me. In my second year there, the department had a dilemma as none of the faculty wanted to teach logic so I spoke up and said I could do that. I then became a lecturer for the remainder of my studies being paid half the salary of a beginning assistant professor. Teaching logic was easy for me but boring for most of the students. I was a little frustrated and I now know that part of the problem was me … I expected students to find logic relevant and useful but few did. Initially I blamed them, but the fault was mine as I later realized years later.

Anyway, I wanted to say something meaningful about focusing on long term values and interests rather than just pursuing short term interests. The discrepancy became obvious to me while watching and listening to such folks as Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and Chris Murphy, and then contrasting their behavior and interests with those of such folks as Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham and Joe Manchin.  

It seems all too easy to differentiate those who emphasize long terms values and interests over short term gains and pursuits, yet the short termers seem to gain the support of so many others. Why is that? What am I not understanding? How could anyone belittle Liz’s heroic leadership on the Jan. 6 Committee or Adam’s willingness to say what he believes rather than pursue another term as Senator of Chris’ long time efforts to rectify the conditions that led to Sandy Hook and Uvalde. How? Yet they are continually attacked by small-minded people supported by a few with deep pockets and strong interests in deepening those pockets. But so many of those mindless followers fail to see that their own short term interests are being marginalized by the deep pocket people.

Whew … I had to get that off my mind and out of my fingers.

 Mike Spector

July 2022

 

So much evil in so many places

 

Due to the advice of family and friends, I am limiting the time I watch or listen to the news. However, it is impossible for me not to see so much evil in so many places, including our own supremely pernicious court. Putin reeks of evil, and it shows in his snake eyes. But more worrisome are the insurrection and climate deniers in my own country. What seems to matter to so many people are their own views and personal gain. When I was younger, I was somewhat like that, but I do not think I ever tried to deny obvious truths. My views on the war in Vietnam got me into trouble when I was an intelligence office in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Al Gore senior came to my rescue and I managed to escape from that madness. Gore senior later urged me not to lose faith in my country in spite of some faults that I saw. Gore senior was a rare politician … not many like him these days. There used to be men and women of integrity on both sides of the aisle. Not so many these days. A few come to mind, including Liz Cheney, whose father I abhorred, and Amy Klobuchar, for whom I voted, and perhaps a dozen more, mostly on the left side of that aisle of despair that threatens our democracy. That supremely divided court seems determined to return the country to the unhappy days of an imaginary past. I am slowly coming to understand one thing in the Jewish bible that my father could not adequately explain to me – namely why the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children and children of the children for several generations to come. I seem to recall my father telling me that was simply a description of human behavior … what was likely to happen based on human behavior. The point was to be a beacon of good as a parent so that one's children would do good all their days. Perhaps my father was right. I cannot recall anything wrong he ever did … I cannot even recall him ever cursing although my mother could curse up a storm when upset. So I wonder about the childhood of Donald Trump and Valdimir Putin and Clarence Thomas and teens with AR-15s and so many others who seem determined to spread hatred and violence in what I used to think of as a beautiful planet in my youthful backpacking days. I have seen much natural beauty and met some amazing individuals, but as I age I worry that those sights and special people are being systematically lost and put down and destroyed. I really wish I could ignore all that is happening these last few years, but it seems to me that what I regarded as beautiful in nature and righteous in people is being destroyed by a minority of misguided bigots. I write to try and rid my self of these thoughts … to no avail. What gives me hope are my children and grandchildren ... the children are our future. 

 

Mike Spector

July the first and hopefully not the last, 2022