I feel this is the appropriate venue to respond to a comment made following the blog I recently wrote about Sarah Palin. Bob Fox a former student of mine in high school, and now a good friend, apparently learned of P.B's current existence from that blog and wrote the comment addressed to him even though I don't feel that blogs should be substitutes for emails. Now I adore the friendships of both Bob and P.B., and friends, "their adoptions tried" should be grappled to your soul like hoops of steel, and no matter their ideology in this election of elections, it will not have an iota of an effect on the strength of our friendships as far as I am concerned.
However, at the conclusion of Bob's remarks to P.B. regarding his Yearbooks and his height and the height of his sons (which had little to do with my views of Sarah Palin), Bob advised P.B. to "Keep rattling Norman's cage, he's a brilliant man but ideological lefties sometimes let their dreams interfere with reality."
Now, I do appreciate Bob's reference to my "brilliance" but I never thought of myself that way as much as I felt that they had much more of that quality than I. But somehow, I don't know how, it seems their brilliance has taken a hiatus these days. Now, Bob and P.B. are two rattles at the end of the snake, and their rattling makes for less substance than they do noise. Whatever I have accomplished in life I did, not because of brilliance, but in spite of a shortage of it. I did what I dreamed of doing, and whatever I dreamed of doing, I did. Our political purposes are poles apart. And, in spite of Bob's assessment, I indeed am aware of reality. The realities are that when we examine the labels on our clothing, they all read, "Made in China"; when we speak to a customer service representative on the phone for any reason, they all seem to come from India, Canada, or Australia. These are realities. In recent weeks the market has plunged into hitherto unknown depths for our times; many families have lost their life savings, their home mortgages are now higher than the worth of their homes. These are realities. Millions of people in our country are without health insurance; untold numbers of workers have lost their jobs; torture of prisoners has become commonplace, and the Constitution is being compromised. These are realities. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been going on for years with no end in sight and thousands of young men have died; we have lost credibility with many of our allies; These too are realities. But dreams do have a way of dealing with realities.
Our country fortunately has had its share of dreamers who confronted "reality".
Gen. George Patton and Douglas MacArthur were dreamers. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was a dreamer, John Kennedy was a dreamer, George Washington was a dreamer, the Wright Brothers were dreamers, Jonas Salk was a dreamer, Marie Curie was a dreamer, and Martin Luther King was a dreamer whose dream is about to become true. I believe Barack Obama is also a dreamer; a brilliant man with the requisite charisma to lead people; to give people hope and to encourage movement and sacrifice. He has dreams also, and what are dreams but motivators nudging us to follow them to fruition...or yes, even to failure. But at least they have purpose. Now, I believe that John McCain is a good man and a good Senator, but compared with Obama he has the personality of an amoeba and the dynamism of a tortoise. Who can follow him? Compared with a man like Pres. Eisenhower he is like Kon Tiki next to the USS Enterprise.
Now, in light of my father's service, my daughter's, my late son-in-law's, and my own, I could never understand why John McCain has been considered a "war hero". Perhaps someone can tell me what he did that was heroic. I don't consider being a prisoner of war for six years heroic, nor does that qualify him to be Commander-in-chief, although many have claimed that it does. You want real heroes? Visit a VA Hospital and say hello to veterans who have lost limbs, and eyesight, and their mobility from meeting enemies almost face to face. And has McCain lost some of his "leadership" by vetting a Looney Tunes vice president who can see Russia from her house? Doesn't he realize that he is 73 years old and a heartbeat away from forcing upon America a hockey mom as a president? Doesn't he care? Now, Bob, my friend--and my 60ish student, P.B. can bang on it all he cares to, but he cannot rattle my cage; it's already been rattled many times over, and strangely enough you are right-- as an "ideological lefty" my dreams have had a way of interfering with reality, and my whole life has been proof of that, thank God!
3 comments:
Your "cage-rattled" response has made my day. Your exquisite prose aside, you twist words and meaning like a political speech writer invoking innuendo and tangents that completely beg the question. I never defended John McCain or Sarah Palin. In fact I have never attacked Barack Obama or Joe Biden. The dreams I refered to were your hopes that the election of Barack Obama and a democratic congress would bring about a solution to many of the existing problems with civil rights, energy, international relations and the economy. That idealogy is flawed, in my opinion, because I don't believe politicians, left or right, care much about anything but getting and staying elected. I don't even believe either candidate knows or understands that much about our recent financial meltdown or they wouldn't have agreed to this ridiculous bailout. My outlook is simple, when Washington gets too one-sided, we suffer. The great society program gave us wasteful spending on ill conceived social programs and the Vietnam war, the Bush years produced another senseless war and destroyed our credibility in the international community. We need moderation, common sense, and respect for a diversity of opinion. I have lived with liberals my whole life and they always preach about their openmindedness. Do you call the attacks I have heard on Sarah Palin open minded? Their personal and vicious and uncalled for. Is this what I heard about Geraldine Ferraro when Walter Mondale chose her? She was less qualified but I didn't hear the opposition humiliate her like Governor Palin is being treated. I know Sarah Palin can legitamitly be criticized. Do it honestly, not with meanspirited slurs. Joe Biden is a plagurizer. Joe Biden led the vicious attack on Clarence Thomas in those hearings when he was nominated to the Supreme Court. Have you ever considered the possibility (probability) that had Biden and Kennedy and company just presented Thomas' lack of credentials as they did with Bork and Carswell he never would have been confirmed? But no, they brought in Anita Hill and, with no proof, began a process of humiliating him in front of the whole world on one, and I mean only one, person's word. I believe that debaucle was the beginning of modern slime politics where personal attack became not only legitamate but the primary tool of political persuation. Norman, Dr. Ross, I will be 66 this month but I still look up to the little, square shouldered behemouth with the piercing dark eyes in 1959 who used to teach his college prep class with such passion and conviction that even I, who couldn't spell Shakespeare, found myself enraptured. As a teacher today I hope I bring that same presence to my classes because what we say has far less importance than what we represent in our caring, our example and our passion for life. I just don't buy or trust any political idealogy and I think the most valuable voter is one who is skeptical and looks carefully into issues. I don't hear or see this, especially from our polarized media but don't get me started on that! Imagine journalists with a rooting interest. How much fairness comes out of that? How can a paper endorse a candidate and claim they report objectively? Ooops, I got started. Your humble former student and friend for life, Bob
Bob Fox, you are a man I'd like to meet some day. A dinner with you and I and P.B. would be lots of fun. I'll buy.
(Robin, conservative, right-wing, distaff spawn of the Baron)
Robert has done exactly what the Baron expected him to do, after reading the Mother of all Blogs--he was motivated to write a passionate and intelligent defense of his own point of view--just what good teachers hope to evoke from their students--a view which may take his mentor to task. Or not. But still an examined view of his own. Nothing can exist in a natural state which can be called good or bad by common assent, since every man consults his own advantage, and determines what is good or bad according to his own fancy-- and in so far as he has regard for his advantage alone, and holds himself responsible to no one save himself he has then observed a law of nature from which there is no escape. Robert has done so eloquently, and Baron is happy to have succeeded in getting a former student to examine himself in thought and put it into words. As Socrates has said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Baron's blog was meant to reap passion, thought, and emotion from readers
regarding the controversial aspects of this historic election. Robert will always be my student, and P.B. my colleague and friend. Baron's views are not meant to commit arson to our relationships. Only to garner thought from my readers.
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