Broken Words
Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010
by Walter Rhett
Charleston Perlo
Healthcare reform has ignited an populist explosion: what the Dickens is happening to America? To cite Dickens--media talking heads, or the views of thousands of assembled citizens from Iowa to Washington-- "it's the best of times; it's the worse of times."
Each of us seems to only hold fast to a single point of view and believe our view holds a monopoly on exclusive truth. Unequivocally. Without a doubt or second thought. Our single minded conclusions are unshakeable and unimpeachable. Hurling these "conclusions" is cited as "debate." This verbal stick checking passes for political engagement and masks itself as news.
Fact: our words and images, our faith in each other, are as broken as the health care system, and equally ratcheting beyond control. Health costs rise, and so does popular rhetoric. On voice mails: profanity and name-calling, threats, denigration, condemnation; in windows: bricks, gun shots; apparently from "parties unknown" on both sides.
What is the connection of this violent and verbal fringe to the larger body of people rallied around their unassailable points of view? Are these few influenced by the words and directives of bloggers who call for throwing bricks and running away? Are their single-minded beliefs the root of their violence and verbal assaults, the source of their blinders about the gross inappropriateness of their nameless acts of cowardice? Or is their impetus deep within their own character, with the political climate serving as a ruse for their "wilding out?"
Are talk radio hosts inflaming these passions as they hide behind free speech? How is this embedded fringe connected to the broader social milieu?
Has the protection of liberty and freedom become a guise for mean-spiritedness as well as over-spending?
Who lays claim to the 1776 revolutionary legacy? To the powers of the Constitution? To America's place among modern, industrial democracies? (America now ranks 14 th among nations with college graduates.)
Who recalls the words of Thomas Paine, written by the American patriot in his pamphlet, Common Sense: "a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom."
Fact: American politics has never been about vandals, cowards, and robo-calls; opinion polls, talk show hosts, or real or imagined monsters of the left or the right.
As an American who voted for Bob Dole and Strom Thurmond (and may have even written Thurmond in on ballots after he died), I also remember my mother's maternal grandfather's freedom or health was neither written in or guaranteed by the Constitution and was proffered by a Presidential executive decree whose confirming legislative amendment was voted down in the US House before its passage. Now that same amendment is grotesquely distorted by the noble status of the American Double Standard. In its name, simple social requirements like community service are considered by those with a pretentious inability, as modern day slavery! ( See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOivmIeM7Po .)
My American life acknowledges complexity and contradictions. It is hard for me to see single-mindedness as a article of blind faith which holds forth the exclusive path of progress.
I hate the idea of mandated health care, but it was Mitt Romney's idea and without it, the system is easy to scam.
I hate the potentially expanded debt or the insurance company's potential windfall, but I support and am willing to pay for the right of all to live.
I hate the current vitriol, and remember being called the " N word" and the lit cigarette butts hurled at my uniform collar as I marched in small town Christmas parades in an integrated SC high school band in desegregation's early years.
I remember Thomas Paine's words, in Common Sense : "Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz., freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with snow, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right. " Single-mindedly so, without exception. As it was during a time I remember decades ago, when a young student played Christmas carols and marches in front of floats and Santa Claus.
(Photo: Cummings HS Band, Brownsville, TX; fair use.)
Walter Rhett recently underwent a successful chest operation to remove non-malignant growths.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Great article Walter. I hated living in the south in the early 50's. We moved to New Mexico then and I was so glad to get away from all the bitterness.
Hello Walter, good to see you around here again.Interesting quote from Thomas Paine, I've never heard it before. I've been very disappointed over the way so many people have acted during this health care debate, but you sum up my feelings well.
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