Saturday, July 4, 2020

“...but it can be.” A 4th of July musing.


Curmie and Beloved Spouse don’t have HBO, so it’s only now we’re getting around to watching the Aaron Sorkin series “The Newsroom,” which we enjoy a lot (one suspects this would be considerably less true if we disagreed with its obvious political slant). We’ve only just finished Season 1, so no spoilers, please.

But watching the concluding episode to that premier season, complete with the reminder that the US is not the greatest country in the world, but it can be, on Independence Eve makes for the sort of interesting juxtaposition of ideas that regular readers of this blog will know Curmie loves to examine. Because, hokey and sanctimonious as that line (and indeed the entire series) is, it’s true. 

We’re not in a good place right now. There are charlatans and buffoons at every level of government. There is literally not a single elected official “representing” Curmie who is even average at all three of three basic criteria: integrity, intelligence, and sanity. POTUS fails miserably at all three (well, to be fair, he might not actually be as stupid as he seems). There’s a pandemic of a deadly virus that has been spectacularly mishandled by those in charge; they’ve managed not only to ignore the people who actually have expertise, but have attempted to denigrate them, as well. Literally millions of Americans have shown themselves to be a toxic blend of ignorance, arrogance, and recklessness in their own personal responses to COVID-19.

Curmie’s twin professions of education and the performing arts are under serious threat, yet he’s luckier than most. The national debt currently stands at over $75,000 per capita, and will undoubtedly soar higher in the months ahead. At a time when they know they’re under increased scrutiny, police forces across the country have responded with even more arrogance, even more brutality, than they’d hitherto exhibited; their response to charges of racism has been not to take measures to eliminate that behavior, but to brutalize some white people, too. The Democratic Party and its flagbearer offer little in the way of actual ideas; “we’re not as big assholes as those guys” is a difficult slogan to rally behind.

And yet… and yet…

Five years ago Curmie wrote that he feared another Kent State couldn’t happen:
I fear that, because such a declaration betrays a profound and disturbing apathy among today’s post-adolescents. This isn’t true of all late-teens and 20-somethings, but a terrifying percentage of my students can’t be bothered to fulfill their responsibility (yes, responsibility) as citizens and even vote, let alone write letters to Congresscritters or actively engage in political campaigns…. The overwhelming majority of people under 30 are liberal on social issues, but that doesn’t matter if making their voices heard isn’t worth a few minutes of their time.
The killing of George Floyd—or, rather, the release of the video showing that horrible event—changed that. Citizens of all ages are literally taking to the streets, asserting what should be the indisputable fact that Black Lives Matter. More to the point, they’re willing to do so in the face of rubber bullets and tear gas, and, as someone (Curmie regrets that he can’t remember who) said a few weeks back, if they’re willing to do that, they’ll get themselves to the polls in November, whatever it takes. 

The initial surge of engagement has died down, but Curmie senses something different this time than in all the other flashpoints since the Reagan administration. Curmie’s own students—would that they were representative of their generation!—are more politically engaged than any collection of undergrads since Curmie himself was in college and US soldiers were still dying in the rice paddies of Vietnam.

We are, in short, at a crossroads. Curmie truly believes that another four years of a Trump administration and a GOP-led Senate will signal the end of American democracy. There is much to suggest that all is already lost, that “liberty and justice for all” was never more than sloganeering, that the greed of the capitalist class and the immorality of their political symbiotic partners in perfidy will crush us all. But, like all true cynics (and like all educators worthy of the name), Curmie is a romantic at heart. He sees what could be, and his snark is deeply rooted not in negativity per se, but in the profound faith that we not only should, but can do better.

As most readers of this blog know, Curmie is a theatre director. Not every first rehearsal looks the same, but there’s one element always present: a hortatory message that if we set clear goals, work together, trust each other, and believe in those who believe in us, we can do great things. Sometimes, of course, it doesn’t work out; Curmie takes responsibility for some pretty mediocre (or worse) productions. But sometimes… sometimes we achieve more than anyone thought possible. We need that magic now. It will take work, dedication, faith, focus, and possibly even courage. But “a more perfect union” is within reach. We can do this.

Ours is not the nation of liberty, freedom, and righteousness we claim it to be.

But it can be.

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