When the Lights go Out

Old Stonington Light, Stonington, CT

A landmark in southern Connecticut, the old Stonington lighthouse was built in 1840 and “retired” from service in 1889.  It has been dark, therefore, for 120 years.  If you look closely at the image, you can see that the tower is empty.  Today, it serves as a museum of maritime and lighthouse history (as well as a photographic target).

I have long been an admirer of lighthouses, not only for their architectural beauty and structural longevity, but also for their pure symbolism.  In many respects, they represent all that is good and noble about humans.  We are at our best when we are selfless, when our actions are driven only by our desire to preserve life and protect others from the ravages of catastrophic events, whether those events be manmade or natural.  And that’s what lighthouses did.  Today’s onboard navigational electronics have essentially made these marvelous structures obsolete, but boaters will tell you that they still prefer to have them around and lit – they like to know that they are there.  They feel more at ease if they can see these pulsating lights, each with it’s own distinctive pattern, even though their electronic gear is telling them exactly where they are.  The light provides comfort and assurance.  They know exactly where they are. 

Eventually, however, most of these lights will go out.  Nothing lasts forever.

But they are not the only “lights” being extinguished in this world.  I watch the news and I’m appalled by what I see.  Without a doubt, the lights are going out.  How can anyone not believe that after viewing what happened in Washington on Friday during the “Million Moron March”?  That phrase, by the way, was coined by one of my favorite comedians (Bill Maher).  I don’t know about you, but I get a little scared when I see tens of thousands of people standing in front of the U. S. capitol saying idiotic, nonsensical things.  It was nothing short of a dangerous mob.

How do you respond to people carrying signs that say:

“Is this Russia?”

“Traitors and Terrorists Run Our Government”

“Don’t Blame Me – I voted for The American”

One woman, interviewed on the nightly news, said that Muslims were taking over the country.  Then, of course, there was the outburst from South Carolina congressman Joe Wilson during President Obama’s address to congress last week (“You lie!”).  This was an unprecedented verbal attack on a sitting president in that chamber.  I can’t help but think that if Obama were white, it wouldn’t have happened.  Too many people are simply refusing to believe that an African American is actually their president.  Joe Wilson was simply revealing his roots.  As were all the morons who descended on Washington Friday.

Make no mistake – much of this is racial.  All of this other stuff is just code – most of these clowns wouldn’t know a socialist from a fascist if one came up and bit them in the butt.  This is just good old fashioned race baiting without the old rhetoric.  Same old crap, different language.  But just as dangerous.  Because, you see, we haven’t changed all that much over the last couple of hundred years.  The bigots are still out there and they’re still very, very loud.  And their lights have been out for a long, long time.

“Something Hard”

Inlet between Lake Ontario and Irondequoit Bay, Rochester, NY

In my last post, I asked (wondered) how people were going to be able to deal with “something hard” if they didn’t understand the really simple stuff.  It was, of course, a rhetorical question.  Most people can’t deal with the hard stuff.  That’s why the folks who sell Zoloft and the like are doing so well.

Anyway, one of the responses I received came from Mark Hobson.  In it, he directed me to one of his own posts.  If you haven’t read it, you really should.  It’s a good one.  One of the things he talks about is healthcare reform, a topic that is decidedly not easy.  If you want to have a rational discussion about the state of healthcare in this country, you’re going to have to do some serious homework.  You’re going to have to ignore all of the misinformation that’s being disseminated (like the “death panel” nonsense) and concentrate on the real issues.  That’ll put you in a distinct minority, of course.  The idiots that are currently disrupting all of these so-called townhall meetings won’t have much use for you, but at least you’ll know what you’re talking about.  Just don’t get too upset when none of them listen to you.  If you think I’m kidding, just watch one of these “townhall meetings”.  MSNBC has started broadcasting some of them “live”.  I watched one this morning from Pennsylvania and one this afternoon from Missouri.  These were predominantly mindless mobs, not informed citizens.  Their behavior was simply shameful.

 But again, read Mark’s post.  He knows what he’s talking about.

He also makes one hell of a good suggestion on a different, but related, topic.  He talks a little about the work of the FSA photographers during the depression (you know, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, etc.).  He then says:

Now all of this got me thinking that what America desperately needs now is a reincarnation of the FSA photography project. There are way too many inconvenient truths out there in the real everyday life of Americans that no one wants to know about, think about, or do anything about.

In my opinion, that’s a really, really good idea.  Now, maybe there are people out there right now doing that kind of work independently, but a more organized effort couldn’t hurt.  Maybe it’s wishful thinking that such a project might serve to educate those who cannot see for themselves what’s happening here, but it certainly can’t hurt.  It’s no secret that pictures are far better storytellers than words.  Even people who rarely read books, or even newspapers, can spend a minute or so looking at a photograph.

But then I’m probably being too optimistic.  I keep seeing (or hearing) statistics like these -

More than half of all Americans can’t name a single branch of government.

2 out of 3 don’t know what’s in Roe v. Wade.

2 out of 3 don’t know what the Food and Drug Administration does.

1 in 4 can’t name the country America fought during the Revolutionary War.

Nearly 1 in 2 Americans don’t know that each state has 2 senators.

And if all that ain’t bad enough, nearly 1 in 5 Americans believes that the sun revolves around the earth.

On the bright side, the majority of Americans know who Bart Simpson is.

Keeping the Faith

"Touchdown Jesus", Hesburgh Library, Notre Dame University

You may have heard some of these exchanges on recent TV ads.  I offer them up purely for your entertainment.

Moderator:  ”Who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?”

Contestant:  ”I don’t know”.

Moderator:  ”Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?”

Contestant:  ”Sponge Bob Square Pants!”

Moderator:  (Pointing to an American flag fluttering in the breeze) “How many stars on the flag?”

Contestant:  “I don’t know; the wind’s blowing too hard for me to count them”.

Moderator:  “Who wrote Handel’s ‘Messiah’?”

Contestant:  “I don’t read books”.

Yes, these are ads for Jay Leno’s new show starting this September on NBC.  And yes, they could be “made up” (it is, after all, going to be a comedy show).  But I would suggest that even if they are fictional, they could easily be real exchanges.  I don’t know about you, but I personally know people who would probably respond the same way.  It’s not that they’re too stupid to know these things.  They’re probably very bright.  The vast majority of people in this country are reasonably intelligent and, as Cedric noted in a comment on my last post, they’re basically “good people”, just trying to make it from one day to the next.  Life ain’t easy, especially when the economy’s in the toilet.  But not knowing stuff like this is just flat – ass lazy.  This is the simple stuff.  What happens when something “hard” comes along?   

So what’s the point?  Just this.  Going through life minimally informed isn’t good enough.  Believing that what’s happening in Washington or in your own hometown doesn’t affect you is, to say the least, dangerous.  If your view of the world is based exclusively on headlines and sound-bites, or what you read on your favorite website, you’re no better off than the folks characterized in the exchanges above.   

If you know anything about Notre Dame or Notre Dame football, you’ll recognize “Touchdown Jesus” in the image above.  No, I didn’t go to Notre Dame (I only wish that I did, even though I’m not Catholic).  I’m one of those people they used to call “subway alumni”.  Touchdown Jesus, of course, can be seen from inside the football stadium; you don’t have to use a lot of imagination to believe that he’s signaling a touchdown (for the Irish, of course).

Unfortunately, things haven’t gone all that well for ND football fans the last few years.  They still fill the stadium for every game and people love to watch them on TV, but other teams no longer fear them.  Losing has become all too common.  But we’ll “keep the faith”.  Maybe this year will be different……