I was born in Portland, Oregon in 1943. When I was a child, America was emerging from the darkness of World War II. There was no particular ebullience in the air, more a sense of relief, and release from the hardships of rationing and deprivation that began with the great Depression and continued through the war years. Of course there was laughter and joy, but there was also caution with family finances and restraint when it came to any optimism about the future.
While kids on our block were occupied with the joys of baseball in the street, spring kite flying, sling shots, clamp-on skates, winter sledding and snowball fights, we were also aware that while the great war was over, there was another war in Korea. And while some houses still had blue and gold stars in the window for sons who had been injured or perished in the second world war, there was now a new gold star mom up the street, and it was a neighborhood secret that one of the families had a draft dodger son living in their attic.
The incongruity of one family losing their son while another hid their draft age son in the attic was not lost on us, whether child or adult. But being called to duty against the Chinese in Korea wasn't the same universal call to action that the simultaneous threats of Germany in Europe and Japan in the Pacific had presented. We would overhear the grownups: Korea was a "police action," "Truman's war," not even a real declared war. For a few brief years, America had enjoyed the role of a victorious savior. The "stars and stripes," the flag with 48 stars was flown proudly. A mock-up of the Liberty Bell on a short truck bed visited school playgrounds once a year. On Memorial Day soldiers with chrome helmets fired 21 gun salutes at the local cemetery. The 4th of July featured colorful parades and neighborhood fireworks included cherry bombs, "buzz bombs," Roman candles, and we would dance around and wave hand-held sparklers. Patriotism and national pride stemmed from the victories of the righteous. Egalitarian democracy had prevailed and would continue to keep the world safe for democracy! And we felt the spirit of American justice would buoy up the newly constituted United Nations as we looked forward to a future of world unity.
That was my childish perspective, and I suppose that vision colors my outlook even now, as an adult in my seventies. But there's been a lot of "water under the bridge." The family moved to California, finding a home in midtown Palo Alto in early 1953. The Korean War was over, but the threat of Communist Russia - whether real, perceived, or manufactured - began to color our foreign policy and filtered through to our daily lives. For some, the "red menace" became a fixation. McCarthyism came to the fore. Labor unions were suspect. Were there spies in the neighborhood? In the workplace? Infiltrating the schools? It became imperative to develop the hydrogen bomb, and guided missiles. There were "duck and cover" exercises in the schools, and the light from atom bomb tests in Nevada could be viewed from our living room window when we got up to watch the tests on our black and white TV at 4:45am.
In early 1954, inspired by Roger Bannister running a mile in under 4 minutes, we measured the perimeter of our schoolyard with the help of our 5th grade teacher and a bicycle wheel with a counter attached, calculating 4 and 1/2 laps would make a mile. The grammar school record came close to 6 minutes, and by 1956, local high school runner Ron Larrieu recorded a respectable 4:20.1 mile! While we were occupied with the challenge of the four minute mile, another seminal event had occurred within a day of Bannister's triumph, the fall of the French at Dien Bien Phu to Viet Namese nationalists in what was then known as French Indo-China. US loyalty to our French allies would later impel our country to blindly carry the torch of colonialism in Southeast Asia and ignore the request for alliance from the new leader of North Viet Nam, Ho Chi Minh. And in 1957 the Russians launched their little beeping Sputnik satellite and school curriculums suddenly became weighted toward math and science.
Other seminal events of the mid to late fifties involved desegregating schools, notably in the Southern US, while championing civil rights in general, and overcoming ridiculously entrenched voter suppression. America's founding documents, while greatly inspired by the humanitarianism of the French Enlightenment, had been diluted by the necessity of compromise with the states whose economies depended on the slave trade. Sometimes termed as "America's original sin," the abhorrent treatment of people of color was rooted in an unenlightened philosophy of white male superiority. The fallacy of this thinking appears as a subconscious assumption that cripples our country yet, denying equality of education, limiting economic access, and equally subjugating both women and people of color - a double whammy for some!
While Abraham Lincoln reunited a divided America after the Civil War, the freeing of slaves was likely a pragmatic move to bolster the strength of the Union Army as much as it was a moral imperative to, at last, live up to the letter of a founding document that maintained "all men are created equal." And even that noble phrase carries within it the great semantic dilemma of the English language, that the predominate pronoun for "human being" seemingly excludes the female of the species! Nearly 250 years into the history of this new nation that embodies the hopes of most of the planet for equality of opportunity and true justice for all, we still suffer from our original myopia, still strive to implement our highest ideals.
And there are those among us who actually work against the achievement of our American dream. Some are blinded by an ethic of white superiority, basically misogynistic as well. A common feature of the denier of equality is holding a value that places individual property ownership above the health and well being of their community. We need to examine this belief in the elevation of property ownership over other more humane values! If the original American settlers had an ounce of humility, they would have recognized they were invading a pristine continent with an existing culture that lived in harmony with nature. Alas, the "civilized" culture that "discovered" America was not civilized at all, but instead carried the hubris of the conqueror. Unfortunately, the soldiers of fortune who would endure the hardship and loneliness of great sea voyages into unknown lands were often motivated by the opportunity to pillage, rape and return as heroes, honored by their country and venerated by society.
Let's, for a moment, imagine what our present life might be like had the ancestors of our dominant ruling class came to the New World as somewhat enlightened souls with a hunger for knowledge and understanding rather than marauders intent on securing riches and the false honor of conquest. They would have endeavored to establish communication with the original people as morally ethical and equivalent human beings. First encounters are sometimes fatal to one or both of the parties involved, adrenalin running high! Depending on the needs of "tribal" protocols and protection for both the invader and the native, sometimes kindness is taken for weakness, or a good offense is considered a necessary defense. But when and if communication was established, through language and symbology, imagine the new attitudes and philosophies that could have been brought back to European societies.
What a puzzle it would have been for what we call 'western civilization' to consider a culture where no one owns the land - instead, participating in a shared stewardship - perhaps too radical a concept! Or, perhaps - too gentle - to consider a harmonious relationship with planet and society, where actions are considered in the context of their effect seven generations hence? Alas the deed has been done. The clash of civilizations with concomitant human and cultural genocide and annihilation by disease - it's all history now. We missed our chance to learn values and techniques that would have mitigated the effects of the industrial revolution. We could have learned much from the values and dignity of other cultures, perhaps enough to avoid committing the evil sins of colonization and imperialism. Yes, save for the studies of cultural anthropologists, philosophical seekers and sages, as a species we lost the opportunity to learn from indigenous people worldwide, the true biblical "stewards of the earth!" Of course, their ranks decimated, they are still here, and much knowledge is still intact. But because male ego and aggression has dominated the global arena for centuries, we have developed a bias against the acceptance of external wisdom - let alone to actively seek its guidance!
Nevertheless, embracing the knowledge and wisdom of all peoples, and organizing this learning - all learning - and applying it to our contemporary problems is our best chance to save the planet, improve our governance, and increase the quality of life for all humanity. Drop the dogma, eschew recognition for individual contribution, put 'profit uber alles' on hold. Use the burgeoning tool of Artificial Intelligence, meld planetary knowledge into a cohesive plan to mitigate, illuminate and set straight the damage caused by errors of the past. The resulting plan, or plans, to correct environmental devastation, design harmonized systems to carry us forward non-destructively, provide equal opportunity and access to capital for all - this challenges the pre-enlightenment acquisitive philosophy that drives us, and has driven us, to destructive individualism and the concentration of wealth that sits uselessly in the hands of an amoral few.
Presently, we are stalled. "Business as usual" will not ask the proper questions, and perpetuates our inability to act for species self-preservation. "Zero-sum" philosophies found in libertarianism and self-aggrandizing capitalism are the antithesis of the Ubuntu inspired new philosophy we need to embrace in order to save our planet, improve the quality of life for every person and move to a balanced global economy that will improve rather than desecrate the earth.
In this regard, because the US has amassed so much of the world's wealth and military power, the disintegration of our government into warring factions controlled by moneyed corporate interests has become the greatest threat to our planet's future. Starting as early as 1945, some Americans, suffused with racism and greed, have been planning a takedown and dismantling of all processes that would diminish their wealth and encourage non-white proliferation and power. Beginning with the candidacy of Barry Goldwater in 1964, the Republican party shifted away from the Eastern seaboard millionaires, who at least had a pragmatic political interest in the public well-being. The party is now controlled by a new cadre of self-serving hyper-libertarians intent on disenfranchising people of color, dismantling all government programs they imagine are depleting the pocketbooks of the ultra-rich (that they serve and hope to become). And as a matter of course they are altering statutes, laws and restrictions that would impede their minority takeover of our government.
In order to seize power, they claim to respect the Constitution, but they disregard it - or warp its interpretation to serve their ends. These destructive millionaires cum billionaires disguised as Republicans promote their own twisted version of a selfish libertarianism. In reality, their philosophy only benefits the few at the top. The tenets they promote - small government, lower taxes, increased individual freedom through removal of restrictive laws - are attractive to some naive individuals as "pie in the sky" but in application the result is utter devastation for all but the favored few who would control all methods for the production of wealth. And because the only path to a total dismantling of all restrictions blocking this unholy pursuit is through minority rule, they must resort to factual obfuscation, legal distortion and emotional appeal.
So in today's America of 2020, one of the two major parties, the Democrats, would hold on to their individual positions of power by attracting voters through a promise of increased governmental benefits. The assumption implicit in their approach is that everyone would enjoy an improved quality of life with thoughtful government services. The Democrat's philosophy has a certain appeal to their unique demographics, and the opposition that has taken the Republican name but trashed its former philosophy appeals to another set of demographics that values individualism, and money in the pocket because it's not being given away to the "undeserving." Citizens expect their government to provide certain basic services, so the nurturing and building that would be provided by the Democrats egalitarian view has a broader intrinsic appeal than the stripping away of services that results from a neo-libertarian small government. Thus the "Republicans" have developed all manner of subterfuge to achieve their goals.
They have been developing their playbook in a concentrated way for 75 years, since the inception of the John Birch Society. The American right uses some very specific issues to attract splinter demographics that don't see their needs specifically addressed by the Democrats. These include anti-abortionists, whites unhappy with integrated schools, and business owners bristling under laws that increase expense even though they protect consumers and workers. Add ranchers, developers and industries that would profit from the opening of federal lands, and removal of environmental restrictions, to name a few. The right also uses gerrymandering, selective voter suppression, control of the courts and excesses of corporate PAC money to influence elections. Regardless of the emotional popularity of their positions, the net result of a full implementation of these retrograde goals would be a great rolling back of beneficial policies, removing hard fought gains developed over a century and a half of effort.
The 2020 presidential election will decide whether our country leads the way toward saving our planet, and finally fulfilling the American dream. Or instead we turn our back on science, allow the continued ravages of the Covid virus in the name of "herd immunity" and witness piece by piece destruction of the participatory democracy that was nobly designed and given to us by our nation's founders. At the present time, a few swing states could determine the outcome of the election because of the arcane nature of America's election process. We don't elect the president by popular vote - the archaic "electoral college" determines the winner through a patchwork of differing state rules and census determined apportionment. The current constituency of the Republican party is the de facto heir apparent to the Confederacy, and reality TV "star" Donald Trump is the enabler-in-chief for the dark destructive forces that care nothing of the high ideals that motivated the American revolution and the authoring of our founding documents.
If you, or someone you know is planning to vote for Donald Trump, or a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives or Senate - don't do it - and talk them out of it. This election is our last chance to save America from a hostile takeover of our democracy by corporate neo-fascists employing a plan they've been building for decades! We must turn them back now. If you're a lifelong Republican, please wake up, your party has been taken over by a libertarian coup. As appealing as the antics of Donald Trump might be, to them, he is only a fortunate, temporary aberration! The Koch Bros, the Cato Institute, the Heritage Institute, i360 and a host of other ultra-minority traitors to the true spirit of American democracy are using him, and they're conning you! This is the one year to make an exception to your rule. If you love America, vote Democratic now! Retake and rebuild your party later, develop a new conservatism that returns to classic values, like a balanced budget, the rights of the individual, a rational gun control and licensing program. Your party has been hijacked, and if you vote Republican this year you'll be voting for a nationalistic, racist minority that embodies principles the very opposite of the ideals our nation was founded on!
Flag-waving Trump supporters, I'm sorry. No one likes to be told they've been played! Trump's only appeal is emotional, and sadly, somewhat juvenile. You've given the middle finger to the Liberals for four years, now it's time to "stand back and stand by" in the name of democracy. Joe Biden is a loving, concerned individual, a lot closer to the middle of the road than the Democrats favorite socialist, Bernie Sanders. Trump is a fool and a tool, it's time for a leader. You've had your fun, now grow up and vote blue. The stakes are too high to continue middle finger politics. The damage the secret billionaires behind the curtain will do, if you allow them, will affect you in many unimagined ways, and a Republican vote this year will betray the founders of our country. Vote blue, if only just this once. Then take some time to re-read the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Check out the writings of Thomas Paine, look up the nature of the debates that led up to the Constitutional Congress. You can regroup for 2022, 2024, and reconstitute the Republican party policies in a way that doesn't require re-districting or voter suppression to win an election.
Save your party, save your country, save your planet!
It's important to vote blue this time around, thank you!
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