1118

 Friday, November 18, 2022

In bed at 10:30, woke up at 4:30, p at 4:45, several pss, a snifter of cognac.  22 cloudy degrees, a dusting of snow on the ground, high of 28.

Vietnam: Burns' film, Hastings' History

It was 57 years ago and my head is still haunted by Vietnam.  So many feelings, survivor's guilt, Moon Mullins and Jay Trembley and 58,000  more, shame at cowardice in avoiding the direct killing MOSs, confusion at my what? ambivalence about those fighting there and the protesters, relived anxiety about CACO duty in Philadelphia, cynicism about politicians and the Pentagon, Kent State, Cambodia, Sterling Hall bombing on my 29th birthday, turbulence at secular Madison, quietude at Marquette, religion and God and Catholic culture, how many dead, how many injured, physically, emotionally, genetically, ignorance, indifference, red pill blue pill, go along to get along, complicity, and it all resurfaced with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Classified memo from Robert McNamara to LBJ: "The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 non-combatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny, backward nation into submission, on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one."

Remembering Michael Gerson

Ruth Marcus: 

A few days earlier, Mike and I had lunch. The speechwriter who had written so many words for others told me he was nervous about baring himself so publicly, and he asked if I would read a draft. He also confided that he had been living in a shadow where, at times, he wondered whether those who meant the most to him would be better off — unburdened — if he weren’t around.

In his sermon, he put it this way: “I suspect that there are people here today — and I include myself — who are stalked by sadness, or stalked by cancer, or stalked by anger. We are afraid of the mortality that is knit into our bones. We experience unearned suffering or give unreturned love, or cry useless tears. And many of us eventually grow weary of ourselves — tired of our own sour company.”

Gerson on the Legacy of Obama

Obama is the first Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to win back-to-back majorities of the national popular vote. But members of his party who venture beyond the 18 acres of the White House will find political ruin. Since he took office, Democrats have lost 13 Senate seats, 69 House seats, 11 governorships, 30 state legislative chambers and more than 900 state legislative seats. In border states that not long ago produced national Democratic leaders — such as Arkansas and Tennessee — the Democratic collapse is especially pronounced. Few presidents have done better for themselves and worse for their parties.

And perhaps most disturbingly for America’s liberal party, trust in government to do the right thing is near historical lows. According to a Pew Research Center average, just 19 percent of Americans trust the government to do the right thing all or most of the time. The whole of the Democratic agenda, the whole of Hillary Clinton’s agenda — from gun control to immigration reform to reducing greenhouse gases — requires some modicum of trust in the capacity of government to act in the public interest. What is liberalism without public trust in government? A college class.

Declining trust in government is part of a larger decline in the trust of institutions generally. But it is fair to say that the launch of Obamacare, the Veterans Affairs hospital scandal and the Internal Revenue Service political targeting scandal did little to halt the slide. Obama was either complicit in the trend or helpless against it.

The same could be said of political polarization — which Obama eventually decided he could not fight, and joined with enthusiasm. Or the rise of an angry, anti-establishment populism. More than 10 years of belief that the United States is on the “wrong track” has hardened into outrage and cynicism and left some Americans vulnerable to ideologues and demagogues. These will be remembered as the characteristics of the Obama era — not hope, but anger and cynicism. It was a time when many Americans learned to rage.

Gerson on Dogs

Jack is a puppy I picked up last week, eight months after the death of my much-loved Havanese, Latte. As soon as I brought Jack home — a powder puff of black and white, curvetting in the grass, all fluff and playful fury — I was reminded of the quandary and question that greets dog owners: Why do we take new dogs into our lives, knowing we will be decimated by their deaths?

I grieved hard for my Latte, who was the dog equivalent of St. Francis of Assisi — a little hairy mammal (Latte, not Francis) who radiated universal benevolence. She was a consoling, healing presence during the worst of my struggles against depression and cancer. In a very real sense, Latte was a better person than I am — a daily practitioner of the hardest parts of the Sermon on the Mount. She was meek, merciful (except to those godless squirrels), peaceable and pure of heart. At her departure, I was the one who mourned.

In human relationships, the transforming presence of love is worth the inevitability of grief. Can dogs really love? Science might deny that the species possesses such complex emotions. But I know dogs can act in a loving fashion and provide love’s consolation. Which is all we really know about what hairless apes can manage in the love department as well.

Love Changes Everything by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Love, love changes everything, hands and faces, earth and sky

Love, love changes everything

How you live and how you die

Love, can make the summer fly

Or a night seem like a lifetime

Yes, love, love changes everything

Now I tremble at your name

Nothing in the world will ever be the same

Love, love changes everything

Days are longer, words mean more

Love, love changes everything

Pain is deeper, than before

Love, will turn your world around

And that world will last forever

Yes, love, love changes everything

Brings you glory, brings you shame

Nothing in the world will ever be the same

New House Democratic Leadership?

Presumptive leaders: Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, Pete Aquilar.  African-American male, Woman, Mexican-American male.  Is this a great demonstration of commitment to diversity or a hurtful demonstration of prioritizing urban minority groups over Sarah Palin's "real Americans"?