Rush to Judgment?!

Normally, I wouldn’t spend an entire article in response to a blog post, but in this particular instance, I found one that helps me illustrate any number of points that I’d like to make, primarily about politics and political issues.

Voici! The post:

Anonym: THE TIME HAS COME DAN TO STAND UP FOR WHERE YOU STAND. A SIXTIES LIBERAL OR THE WORLD WE LIVE IN TODAY. WE HAVE ALL LEARN AND GROWN SINCE KHS BUT YOU DON'T SEEM TO HAVE LET GO IT. LET IT GO! YOU NEED TO FIND PEACE WITH YOUR SELF AND YOUR CLASSMATES FROM KHS

“Anonym,” refers to the bloggers identity, which is short for “anonymous.”

KHS stands for Kenton High School in Kenton, Ohio, where I graduated in 1963.

The article being blogged is entitled Obama's First 100 days: Left, Right, or Center? and this is blog post #2. Yes, I do read and appreciate each and every blog post. I have not edited or removed any of the posts on any of my articles.

The point of that article was to examine, whether I think President Obama, not through preconceived notions or expectations, but through objective analysis of his actions—his tracks in the sand, as it were, as President, is governing from the left, the right, or the center.

Judging from the reliably rightwing, Republican, voting records of Hardin County, Ohio and the tenor of the remarks, I’m guessing that the person who wrote the blog is upset, because—consistent with some expectation that he or she (hereinafter “he”) had about me—I have not taken to branding our new president as a starry eyed liberal, incapable of making even-tempered decisions, which reflect, not ideological leftist views, but those in fact, which more nearly represent the center of U.S. political thought.

You’ll notice that I do not draw a conclusion in that article that such is the case. But, rather, defer the conclusion until we see more evidence, happily noting in the process that, so far, there remains hope for a centrist governance. In other words, I am willing to, “Give the man a chance.”

U.S. history is replete with individuals who kept their core political views close to the chest, so to speak, and then turned out to be someone entirely different when they took office. A perfect example would be George W. Bush, who, as governor of Texas developed a reputation for being conciliatory and working with “both sides of the aisle.” Then, once in office, as President, he couldn’t have governed further to the right.

It may surprise this reader that George W. Bush got my vote the first time around, but did not in the last previous election. And, if he’s willing to conclude that I’m a “sixties liberal” because I don’t believe in desecrating the U.S. Constitution to serve the avaricious desires of one’s special interest constituencies, most notably the oil companies (including Haliburton), then he is probably right.

If he sticks with me over time, he will find that I’m very conservative on some issues (immigration), somewhat conservative on others (national defense), somewhat liberal on some issues (giving people a hand up—education, as opposed to a hand out--something I’d like to see minimized, and/or administered by churches and such), and what I would guess someone who grew up alongside me in the sixties would call very liberal.

Since attention spans are limited, I’m going to develop a single point that I would think would have been considered very liberal—to the point of mockery or absurdity--by KHS, Class of 1963, conventional standards. I’d like to share what my own “growth” has been in this arena, since leaving Kenton, shortly after graduation in 1963.

Before doing so, however, I want to hasten to add that in doing so, I’m not endeavoring to typecast the entire community. For one thing, I don’t believe the “entire community,” even then, reflected the views that I think give rise to the apparent venom in “anonym’s” remarks. I built my foundation for life in that town, largely through conversations and counsel from the parents of many of my best friends. In doing so, I heard many points of view, both liberal and conservative and, he may be surprised to hear, drew what I thought were the very best of those ideas and perspectives, from both pools of thought.

I would guess that the “sixties liberal” indictment contained just beneath the surface of anonyms blog refers to a long held viewpoint, expressed from an early age, that people shouldn’t be pre-judged by the color of their skin, their religions, their means, or in the case of Kenton, Ohio, which side of town they lived on.

To illustrate this point, I’ll begin by suggesting that the “world we live in today,” is entirely different than the world I lived in the 1960’s. I left town, not because I was unhappy there, but because of a. a lack of opportunities and b. inclement weather. The place I live in now, i.e., the San Francisco Bay Area, is not just in a different time zone. It’s a different world!

I have been blessed to spend the last 35, more or less years, enjoying a cultural diversity, like no other—both in California and at my second home in Hawaii. On an almost daily basis, I interact with Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, African Americans, Persians, Pakistanis, Muslims, Christians, Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Hindus, Russians, and many others. The list is random and incomplete.

One of our young, associate attorneys used to joke that our law firm was “the United Nations,” considering the attire of the people who came, went, and spent their good, hard earned money within our doors.

I forget the year when I quit thinking of people as one or another of the foregoing and started thinking of them as people, rising or falling in my esteem, based almost entirely on who they were, as individuals, and little or not at all, based upon their ethnicity, race or religion. But, whenever it was, it was a blessed year. There have been days, when I’ve been at meetings, which included almost all of the above, wherein I am delighted to say that when I got home, if you asked me to match names with cultural, ethnic or racial identities, I probably couldn’t.

Do you think this has ever happened to anyone, even once, in Hardin County, Ohio?

I can only begin to recount the “growth,” and confirmation of my previously shared views on the subject from which I’m guessing some of the latent hostility seething from the blog reflects.

I recently had the privilege of being an honored guest, along with our U.S. Congressman, lest you think I’ve fallen in with the terrorists, at a Pakistani Independence Day celebration, which was hosted by our local Islamic Center, i.e., the Muslims. What an enriching and emotionally fulfilling experience that was. The women dressed modestly in brightly colored red, purple, green, yellow, glittering sarongs, sarees, salwar kameez, and tunics, along with jewelry galore. Much of their skin was painted with henna and the food was spectacular.

Then, there was precision dancing and the gut splitting humor of their parodies. I have always thought of Muslims as being stone faced and serious, but not so, my friends. The ones I know are lively and spirited—and they would hurt NO ONE! In fact, it’s against their religion, believe it or not. What you read about in the papers are the rogue sects and individuals, such as the Christian ones with David Koresh down in Waco, Texas.

During the past year, I’ve been to Greek Orthodox festivals, celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, seen African American art shows, celebrated the festival of lights (Channukah), attended a Buddhist Temple service and listened to a Hindu Priestess describe her religion from the heart. Much of what she had to say about her past lives didn’t resonate with me, but when she described God as she understands him, I got goosebumps—because it’s the very same God I’ve learned to know and love across the Christian pulpit for most of my life.

Within the next week I’ll be listening to choirs from Sweden and Russia, singing in their native tongues. Last week I attended a Baha’i faith event with “sitar music, straight from the banks of Baghdad.”

Does this sound like, “The world we live in today?” I can only hope that your world has begun to approach the joy and splendor of the one I'm in. It's marvelous!

As I look for other points of reference regarding things that may cause me (in the eyes of anonym; I’m sure he doesn’t speak for the “entire” class) not to be “at peace” with my classmates, I’ve reflected on comments I’ve made about the class structure in Kenton, depending on whether one lives north or south of—I’ll take a wild guess—Franklin Street.

The first thing that comes to mind is the disappointment I had as a KHS student at being thrown over by someone who lived on the south end of town with one of her recurring mantras being, “You live on the north end of town [and I don’t”]. There is a dagger in my heart over that, even today, as I look back on the experience. And, I’ll be the first to admit that there may have been, or probably were, other reasons why the person didn’t think of me as a match. But it was one of them. Of that I am sure. And, even today, it makes me sick to my stomach—for what a treasure of a person I thought she was.

Insofar as remarks I made at one of our reunions on this subject, I had just spent that very afternoon with someone of great prominence in Hardin County, who shared with me how painful it had been for him or her (hereinafter “her” for balance) growing up to have been raised on the south end of town and discounted as worthless by virtue of her childhood domicile. She has since been and become a giant in your community, someone I suspect we all admire at the very deepest level. In large part, I was delivering her message to you, because I felt as though the time honored bias that works—arbitrarily in my opinion--against this segment of the population should be reassessed, while we were all still so young.

The life history of this single person proves my case.

This brings me back to Barack Obama. He is after all a black man. He also had a very liberal voting record in the U.S. Senate. Does that mean he’ll govern from the left?

As I write this today I have to say that I honestly don’t think so. Will he have a leftist social agenda? So far, the jury is out. Yes, the U.S. stimulus package that started out in the House of Representatives was very left leaning, but it’s not the stimulus package that was signed into law by Barack Obama. He did not write the bill. He did not send the House a prototype. Congress (Mr. Jim Miller, our h.s. civics teacher) is smiling this time) writes the bills. The vast majority of the far left funding for social programs was taken out of the stimulus package before it was signed.

It was three Republican Senators, Arlen Specter (now a Democrat; PA), Olympia Snow and Susan Collins (both of Maine), who held the veto pen on this measure, not Barack Obama.

So, all I’m saying is “give the man a chance,” just as I have suggested over the years that everyone in our community, including you and me, be given a chance to demonstrate who they are by their words and deeds before type-casting them, or relegating them to the “irrelevant” heap. Everyone, including you, should be embraced as individuals and seen as God’s creatures with immense potential. If this is what you meant by, “WE HAVE ALL LEARN AND GROWN SINCE KHS,” then I applaud you.

So as not to leave a stone unturned, I must close by turning to my novel, Philips Park, wherein a few of my classmates have hinted that some of the characters in that book may not be entirely fictitious, I hasten to remind you,

“The resemblance of any characters [except for a few cameos], description or narration to actual people is coincidental and unintended. The characters, as with all fiction writers, are composites of everyone the author has ever known or imagined.”

And, as I said in my written message to you at the last reunion, “I was not out to ‘get’ anyone by writing the book. I love you all!”

There is, however, a message in the book for those with the capacity, patience and inclination to process abstract thought. I hope you will find and embrace it.

And, finally, “anonym,” what makes you think that you speak for our class? My inbox is full of kudos from our classmates, who are either supportive of my efforts, or at least feel that we’d all benefit from an open discussion of the issues I’ve chosen to explore.

As a domestic abuse victim (see Domestic Violence Aftermath: Part I), I can confidently relate that “open discussion” is the bane of meanness, cruelty, insensitivity to the rights, needs and potential of others. In every scenario, there are winners and losers. I am pulling for those who, when given the chance, will demonstrate that they deserve a place of honor and respect, or at the very least, just like President Obama, a chance to prove (or disprove) to us who they really are.

And, by-the-by, I am at peace. Don’t you realize that novelists thrive on drama, conflict and controversy? When challenged, I will almost always turn into the eye of the storm (see Law 101: Negotiating).