Thursday, July 14, 2016
The id Post: This Is Already Worse Than 1968
The id Post: This Is Already Worse Than 1968: by Irene Daniel I remember waking up on the morning of June 5, 1968 to the sounds of my mother sobbing into a bath towel. Robert Kennedy h...
This Is Already Worse Than 1968
by Irene Daniel
I remember waking up on the morning of June 5, 1968 to the sounds of my mother sobbing into a bath towel. Robert Kennedy had been shot in Los Angeles after winning the California Democratic Primary just the night before. A few months prior to this event, we had all witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta.
And there were riots all spring and summer long, in this year of violence kicked off by the TET offensive in the Vietnamese war; which led of course to more protests and civil unrest of all kinds, all across the country. It was a year of many horrors for us.
Many writers and pundits have remarked upon the many similarities between the election year of 1968 and this one. The violence, racial tensions, economic inequality and lack of meaningful opportunities for Americans of all stripes, all seemingly coming to a crashing crescendo at convention time. Frankly, and not to minimize the shock of multiple assassinations and riots, I think this Year of the Monkey is even worse than that of 48 years ago.
It's worse because we should know better by now.
The vivid memory of that morning in June in 1968 stands out for me because of the extraordinary shock felt all over the nation and around the world. This was something that didn't happen very often. We can't say that anymore. Turning on the TV and witnessing some out-of-this-world insane violence is, woefully, no longer uncommon. Sometimes there are multiple such events in one week, as we have recently experienced in Louisiana, Michigan and Texas. Are we getting too used to this?
I don't want to get into the weeds of statistics of measured violence; I am just expressing what it feels like to me as an American. The frequency of these horror-filled events, as well as the variety and diversity of their targets and victims, just seems scarier and more immediate to me. I'm glad I don't live in a big city anymore.
It happens to people who are black, Muslim, Mexican and other people of color who are disproportionately targeted by police. It happens to people in churches. It happens to people at the movies, at the grocery store, at work, at school, and on and on. It seems that any one of us at any time could be taken out by a bullet. Life is cheap, and cheaper for some than others.
I won't take this space to blame and shame or to pretend that I have a solution. I don't. None of us can find a solution by blaming and shaming our fellow Americans. I think we're getting a little too used to that merry-go-round too.
The frequency of violence, lack of civility combined with the intensity of vitriolic rhetoric -- 50 years post Civil Rights Movement mind you, make this year feel much worse, much scarier than 1968, in my opinion. And we haven't even begun the conventions yet!
On this Bastille Day, a testament to French Liberty and an international dateline of demarcation, I hope that celebrating freedom comes to mean more than the right to hate whomever you choose.
And as I write this, I learn of another disaster of violence in Nice, France, as they celebrated Bastille Day.
Please, let's not get used to hearing this kind of news.
Copyright 2016, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
I remember waking up on the morning of June 5, 1968 to the sounds of my mother sobbing into a bath towel. Robert Kennedy had been shot in Los Angeles after winning the California Democratic Primary just the night before. A few months prior to this event, we had all witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta.
And there were riots all spring and summer long, in this year of violence kicked off by the TET offensive in the Vietnamese war; which led of course to more protests and civil unrest of all kinds, all across the country. It was a year of many horrors for us.
Many writers and pundits have remarked upon the many similarities between the election year of 1968 and this one. The violence, racial tensions, economic inequality and lack of meaningful opportunities for Americans of all stripes, all seemingly coming to a crashing crescendo at convention time. Frankly, and not to minimize the shock of multiple assassinations and riots, I think this Year of the Monkey is even worse than that of 48 years ago.
It's worse because we should know better by now.
The vivid memory of that morning in June in 1968 stands out for me because of the extraordinary shock felt all over the nation and around the world. This was something that didn't happen very often. We can't say that anymore. Turning on the TV and witnessing some out-of-this-world insane violence is, woefully, no longer uncommon. Sometimes there are multiple such events in one week, as we have recently experienced in Louisiana, Michigan and Texas. Are we getting too used to this?
I don't want to get into the weeds of statistics of measured violence; I am just expressing what it feels like to me as an American. The frequency of these horror-filled events, as well as the variety and diversity of their targets and victims, just seems scarier and more immediate to me. I'm glad I don't live in a big city anymore.
It happens to people who are black, Muslim, Mexican and other people of color who are disproportionately targeted by police. It happens to people in churches. It happens to people at the movies, at the grocery store, at work, at school, and on and on. It seems that any one of us at any time could be taken out by a bullet. Life is cheap, and cheaper for some than others.
I won't take this space to blame and shame or to pretend that I have a solution. I don't. None of us can find a solution by blaming and shaming our fellow Americans. I think we're getting a little too used to that merry-go-round too.
The frequency of violence, lack of civility combined with the intensity of vitriolic rhetoric -- 50 years post Civil Rights Movement mind you, make this year feel much worse, much scarier than 1968, in my opinion. And we haven't even begun the conventions yet!
On this Bastille Day, a testament to French Liberty and an international dateline of demarcation, I hope that celebrating freedom comes to mean more than the right to hate whomever you choose.
And as I write this, I learn of another disaster of violence in Nice, France, as they celebrated Bastille Day.
Please, let's not get used to hearing this kind of news.
Copyright 2016, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
Saturday, July 9, 2016
The id Post: Piercing Revolution and Peaceful Evolution
The id Post: Piercing Revolution and Peaceful Evolution: by Irene Daniel Born of violence revisited from time to time war gives way to weariness and longing for the sublime Then building and...
Thursday, June 30, 2016
The id Post: Where Are We Going? A New Age of Enlightenment? Or...
The id Post: Where Are We Going? A New Age of Enlightenment? Or...: by Irene Daniel This week we have seen the Confederate flag, a symbol of "southern pride" come down in South Carolina. This is s...
Thursday, May 19, 2016
The id Post: Thriving in the Chaos of 21st Century America
The id Post: Thriving in the Chaos of 21st Century America: by Irene Daniel I had a funny feeling a while back that this election year would be one for the books. In the Chinese Zodiac it is the Year...
Thriving in the Chaos of 21st Century America
by Irene Daniel
I had a funny feeling a while back that this election year would be one for the books. In the Chinese Zodiac it is the Year of the Monkey and, like 1968, 1980 and 1992, it has been full of surprises thus far. And we are still six months away from election day.
I often caution myself to "never say never," and so will not predict the outcome of the presidential election. Yes, Donald Trump could become our next president. I don't think it's very likely, but I won't say it's impossible. Mortifying for me, yes; but impossible? No.
The chaos of the 2016 campaign is, however, fascinating to political junkies everywhere. It is truly a time of shifting priorities and a seemingly heightened awareness of a fundamental unfairness in the way we do a lot of things here: wealth distribution, campaign financing, voting and race relations to name but a few.
The American rage and quest for greater things that birthed a nation and settled the west has surfaced once again. And I wonder where this sweeping energy will take us now.
We see unfairness everywhere. Middle-class and working-class whites see an idealized American model of the 1950s that is no longer accessible to them. Non-whites, the working poor and others who were always on the outside looking in during the time of that now longed-for era, see five decades worth of advances in their right to the American dream now at risk. And the elite and the media, now the mouthpiece of the oligarchs in charge of all the money and power, have convinced us that it is that "other" American's fault that our American dream is slipping away.
And so now we have a presidential race that exacerbates our differences rather than maximizing our most powerful potential found in unifying efforts. When Americans unite, we are unbeatable. We can literally conquer the world, as evidenced by our performance in two world wars, not to mention the Cold War. During WWII all Americans, of every color and creed, united in a painstaking effort to defeat fascism. Every American family sacrificed and all rejoiced in the victorious outcome.
When American economic and scientific forces unite, we can conquer space. The American flag that now sits on the lunar surface is a mighty testament to what can be accomplished when big government, big business and big labor combined resources to accomplish something greater than any one could have accomplished without the others.
We are all frustrated and feel let down by leaders that we trusted. Whether Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, white or non-white, we all feel betrayed. And we are angry. Who can blame us?
What we do with that anger, however, is entirely up to us. We can use that anger to engineer solutions for all Americans, bringing order to the chaos by listening to all voices and honoring diverse constituencies. Or we can use that energy to destroy the infrastructure that has served us for almost 250 years. It's tempting to take a wrecking ball to something that isn't working. But is that really the solution? Walking away from all that makes us great and shattering any hope of the American unity that is the foundation of our greatness will not make us freer and safer. It will only fuel the flames of fear that could result in a truly scorched earth -- literally. Wouldn't that be like burning your house down completely when all you need are new floors?
We will, without question, reap what we sow. Will we sow seeds of united empowerment, working together adjusting and fixing that which is broken without destroying the progress made as we evolve toward that "more perfect union?"
Or will we unleash our collective rage; which can only bring more chaos?
Copyright, 2016, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
I had a funny feeling a while back that this election year would be one for the books. In the Chinese Zodiac it is the Year of the Monkey and, like 1968, 1980 and 1992, it has been full of surprises thus far. And we are still six months away from election day.
I often caution myself to "never say never," and so will not predict the outcome of the presidential election. Yes, Donald Trump could become our next president. I don't think it's very likely, but I won't say it's impossible. Mortifying for me, yes; but impossible? No.
The chaos of the 2016 campaign is, however, fascinating to political junkies everywhere. It is truly a time of shifting priorities and a seemingly heightened awareness of a fundamental unfairness in the way we do a lot of things here: wealth distribution, campaign financing, voting and race relations to name but a few.
The American rage and quest for greater things that birthed a nation and settled the west has surfaced once again. And I wonder where this sweeping energy will take us now.
We see unfairness everywhere. Middle-class and working-class whites see an idealized American model of the 1950s that is no longer accessible to them. Non-whites, the working poor and others who were always on the outside looking in during the time of that now longed-for era, see five decades worth of advances in their right to the American dream now at risk. And the elite and the media, now the mouthpiece of the oligarchs in charge of all the money and power, have convinced us that it is that "other" American's fault that our American dream is slipping away.
And so now we have a presidential race that exacerbates our differences rather than maximizing our most powerful potential found in unifying efforts. When Americans unite, we are unbeatable. We can literally conquer the world, as evidenced by our performance in two world wars, not to mention the Cold War. During WWII all Americans, of every color and creed, united in a painstaking effort to defeat fascism. Every American family sacrificed and all rejoiced in the victorious outcome.
When American economic and scientific forces unite, we can conquer space. The American flag that now sits on the lunar surface is a mighty testament to what can be accomplished when big government, big business and big labor combined resources to accomplish something greater than any one could have accomplished without the others.
We are all frustrated and feel let down by leaders that we trusted. Whether Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, white or non-white, we all feel betrayed. And we are angry. Who can blame us?
What we do with that anger, however, is entirely up to us. We can use that anger to engineer solutions for all Americans, bringing order to the chaos by listening to all voices and honoring diverse constituencies. Or we can use that energy to destroy the infrastructure that has served us for almost 250 years. It's tempting to take a wrecking ball to something that isn't working. But is that really the solution? Walking away from all that makes us great and shattering any hope of the American unity that is the foundation of our greatness will not make us freer and safer. It will only fuel the flames of fear that could result in a truly scorched earth -- literally. Wouldn't that be like burning your house down completely when all you need are new floors?
We will, without question, reap what we sow. Will we sow seeds of united empowerment, working together adjusting and fixing that which is broken without destroying the progress made as we evolve toward that "more perfect union?"
Or will we unleash our collective rage; which can only bring more chaos?
Copyright, 2016, Irene Daniel, all rights reserved.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
The id Post: A Page of Praise for My Hometown: The Cowboy Cradl...
The id Post: A Page of Praise for My Hometown: The Cowboy Cradl...: by Irene Daniel I was born and raised in Florence, AZ in the mid-1950s. Ike was President of the USA; and copper, cotton and cattle were K...
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