"I Believe in America"

So said the mythical Bonasera in Mario Puzo’s "The Godfather", and I’d have to agree with the man. And like the fictional "Crash Davis", I believe in a lot of things, but I guess this is what I believe the most:

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It never was between you and them anyway."

(Mother Teresa)

With that hope in mind, please allow me this introduction, Faithful Reader. I am an ordinary, anonymous American Mutt of mixed ethnicities, a father of four who’s been separated for quite a few years now. I reside somewhere East of the Mississippi and North of Boston. By trade, I’m a lawyer and have been engaged in public service for a number of years in an administrative capacity. Prior to this position, I had a private law practice. Before that, I worked for a very well known corporation for twenty years in the engineering field, raising my family while attending college and law school at night.

During the time I worked at the factory, it was my good fortune to have become involved with the trade union that represented workers within the profession in which I was engaged. The primary lesson I took from this invaluable experience is that any knucklehead can throw tomatoes from the peanut gallery. In order to realize something positive, one is required to propose a constructive response.

I believe that we are all God’s Children and have no tolerance for anyone who espouses views that divide individuals along characteristics of race, gender or creed. The other side of the coin is that I am wary of individuals and groups who attempt to jam their own particular agendas down the public’s throat. I don’t care what you believe in or who you sleep with at night. It’s none of my business. The measure of a person’s life is not necessarily the accumulation of wealth or possessions; it is the capacity to love. It is not romance of which I write (though I wholeheartedly support), it is as Jesus has said, to love one’s neighbor as one loves themselves, and never underestimate the value of silence and solitude.

I am an alcoholic who has been sober since April 1, 1990. Through the trials and tribulations that followed (while not as poignant as you may find in a Dickens novel) I have cherished my sobriety as a unique gift from God.

Whenever you hear or read the word "America", what’s the first thing you think about? If every man, woman and child had an opportunity to respond, we could publish a text millions of pages deep, like a tapestry woven of distinct thread into an identifiable whole. What is the tie that binds? The answer is beyond one person’s perspective.

When I consider the word, the first thing I think of is "idea". Perhaps that’s a little too abstract for a lot of folks, but ultimately, the principles embodied in the Constitution and carried forth are just that, ideas. These ideas have been around long enough so as to have stood the test of time. Over the course of the last 230 years, there has been tumultuous conflict among the citizenry in the application of the idea. The idea is still evolving, but to what end? Perhaps there is no "end". Maybe keeping the idea alive for the next generation is fulfillment enough. During that time, there have been a number of foreign and domestic ideologies that have competed with, and continue to challenge the American Idea. Some are or were the demented philosophies of despicable murderous tyrants who sought to impose their insane ideas on the rest of the world.
So, America is not simply an idea or an experiment, because it embodies the aspirations of human freedom, it is one worth preserving and promoting.

I thank God every day for the privilege of being an American. In mankind’s tortured history, the American Experiment has been the most shining example of how people can live with one another with a common purpose: to be free. Not that it’s been Utopia. The stain of slavery on this nation still has not been fully cleansed from our national consciousness. Certain manifestations of racial, ethnic and religious bias and intolerance are alive and well, reverberating through the generations. Government has poured untold billions of dollars into rectifying inequality, but until such time as hearts are changed, the focus will be on change for appearance sake.

Like many of you, I am the progeny of brave, adventurous souls who journeyed from afar only to discover that the streets were not paved with gold. They came here with nothing but hope, bringing their foreign traditions and customs, unfamiliar with the native language (which they made damned certain their children learned) and performed menial and subhuman tasks for unspeakably low wages in order that their children have an opportunity to walk through the front door of The American Mainstream. Along the way, there were wars, economic depressions, heartaches and sorrows. It was this spirit of sacrifice that enabled their children to walk through the front door of the university. It was this work ethic passed to their children that enabled the succeeding generations to excel and positively contribute to the growth of America. I am indebted to them for their sacrifice.

I am not a veteran of military service, but hold the sacrifices of our fighting men and women in the utmost regard. I am the son of a soldier (United States Army, WWII, 5th Army). The service of my father, and the millions like him, done without great fanfare or tribute is responsible for all of the freedoms we seemingly take for granted. The unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: to speak and write as we believe, the right to worship (or not) according to our beliefs, and all of the guarantees freely given as our American inheritance. Our public discourse devotes little or no time to how wonderful these freedoms are, and the price that is required to preserve and promote them.

During my brief time on Planet Earth, I’ve witnessed the murders of a President and two statesmen within five years, man setting foot on the moon, a senseless war that cost the lives of 55,000 kids, the resignation of one President as well as the impeachment of another, the fall of an empire, the rise of the global corporation and the decline of organized labor. We’ve gone from a Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation to being threatened by fascist terrorists. Through these storms, I believe in God, Apple Pie and Old Glory. I am politically ambivalent, but have opinions on the manner in which government should conduct itself. As time passes, I will be happy to share my thoughts on a wide variety of topics, and would sincerely welcome your thoughts as well.

"Bad Politicians"

Five years have passed since September 11th, and as a nation, hopefully we still remember loved ones lost and honor the sacrifices of those brave souls who gave their lives. It doesn’t matter "who’s to blame", not now, (Americans always feel the need to "blame" someone or thing.) It was a cataclysmic failure of intelligence and security, from the highest levels in Washington to the baggage screeners in Boston. No amount of finger pointing can bring anyone back to their loved ones. So, Faithful Reader, the question is where are we as a nation five years later?

The answer is, pretty much where we were. After a brief rush of patriotic fervor, we’ve pretty much returned to our pursuits while those who would seek to destroy us laugh at our lack of resolve. While we’ve been conditioned to think in terms of 30-second sound bytes and 24-hour news cycles, the enemy patiently watches and waits. The midterm elections are only a few weeks away, and this is where our politicians are focused, rather than working in a bipartisan way to enact meaningful immigration reform, economic reform and strengthening national security.

I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up with the politicization of every facet of American life. Are there any facets of life that transcend politics? Perhaps I was naïve in this respect, but I truly believed that one thing that was above politics was the weather. After Katrina, however, I suppose that politics even holds sway over the clouds.

Certainly, spirited partisan political debate is integral to being American, and ugliness in the political realm has a long and well-documented life of its own. However, the advent of 24-hour news and the internet has given rise to the ends of the political spectrum driving the debate. To our credit, no other nation on earth allows its citizens the unfettered access to the affairs of government as occurs in America, thanks in large part to C-Span, yet the disconnect between government and the people is palpable. And it’s damned hard to get answers these days. What you get is spin. Right-spin on this network, left-spin on that. Whatever happened to the Five "W’s" of journalism?

When the ends squeeze the middle, polarized halves rule the day. Without a consensus, the end result will not be pretty, as was horribly demonstrated during the years 1861-1865. At what point do partisan politics and party affiliation become more important than the unmitigated blessings of being American? Sometimes we take this incredible experiment for granted. There’s not much of a market in the media for extolling virtue. It’s all about the buck.

There are thousands of individuals who could genuinely work toward effectuating positive change through public service who wouldn’t dream of getting involved out of fear of having some of the most intimate details of their private lives splashed in the public domain. The nature of politics today is not the qualities an individual brings to the table but money and blind ambition. That’s the only way Mr. Smith gets to Washington. It doesn’t matter if you’re an empty suit (or skirt) or the front man for a particular agenda. As a result, the pool of qualified candidates has dwindled to only the most ambitious and financially supported. Widsom and foresight are not automatically contained in the candidate's toolbox.

Politics and government are no different than any other collective endeavor in that sometimes the crew that’s been put together doesn’t just work well as a team. Right now, our "team" (executive and legislative branches) stinks. It appears that Republicans and Democrats are too obsessed with tearing each other to shreds to consider the needs of the American People. We can assess how and why the team is underperforming and suggest changes to the lineup via the ballot. I don’t know how you feel, but I cannot feel a great sense of confidence or inspiration in any federal publicly-elected figure.

While I disagreed with practically all of his agenda, I nevertheless viewed "The Great White Father" (Ronald Reagan) with confidence. Nobody was going to fuck with America on his watch. Although much of his political agenda were divisive, he wasn’t. There's no one out there now who exudes the charismatic persona that America needs at this crucial juncture in its history.

The candidates today are bought and paid for by special interests, shamelessly pander for votes, employ the lowest common demoniator --fear-- to advance themselves, and couldn't give you the time of day before checking in with their focus group.

And the public discourse regarding the candidates just seems to get worse all the time. Politicians have not always been held in high regard in America, as the great cartoonists have so eloquently described. They've been the targets of lampoonery and disdain, but the level of vitriol which now exists is frightening. The hatred on the part of some people toward elected officials is so extreme as to burn down the house with all the occupants inside. Yet, the Constitution guarantees the right of free speech (with appropriate limits) as such persons spit upon the American Idea and the people responsible for defending it.

THE NFL Week 1:
Moving on to more mundane matters, I have five fantasy football teams in various free leagues, and all five teams came out on top. As far as my predictions for last week’s games, that was another matter entirely.

For the week, I selected nine winners by the spread but really took a hit on the over/under losing 12 out of 16. I don’t gamble, but I do like to make picks to see how things turn out. Maybe it’s a way of empirically reinforcing how The House Always Wins. Then again, this week I outperformed three of the six "experts" on "CBS Sportsline. Please stay tuned for my Week 2 selections later in the week. Of course, such prognostications are "For Fun And Amusement Only".